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Our Lady Of The Rosary, Our Lady Of Victory

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Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. Where does this title and celebration come from?

At the last apparition of Fatima on October 13, Mary identified herself in this way, saying, “I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day.” But nearly 350 years earlier, the history of this memorial celebration began. The troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire had invaded and occupied the Byzantine Empire by 1453, and brought a large portion of the Christian world under a version of Islamic law. They continued to expand westward for the next 100 years, determined to invade Rome. In 1571, a fleet of 300 ships of the Ottoman Empire was preparing to wage a battle to conquer Europe, off the coast of Western Greece. Genoa, Spain, and the Papal States – three Catholic powers of Europe – formed an alliance called the Holy League, to defend Christian civilization against the looming Turkish invasion, sailing to confront them near Lepanto. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and the crew of the 200 ships of the Holy League prayed it as well.

Lepanto was a decisive battle, setting the trajectory of European history for hundreds of years. The pope attributed this to the intercession of Our Lady through the Rosary, and in thanksgiving instituted the celebration of “Our Lady of Victory” on October 7 and inserted the invocation “Help of Christians” into the Litany of Loreto. The name of the feast was changed by several popes, but always with the intention of giving thanks for this victory.

It is interesting that it was at Fatima that Mary revealed herself as the “Lady of the Rosary”, as the name of this little village refers to the youngest daughter of the prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam (Portugal and Spain were occupied by Muslims for centuries). Mary is also the only woman named in the Quran, which describes her as being chosen above all other women. This indicates the possibility of a connection between Islam, Mary, and the Rosary.

At the July apparition, Mary told the children to “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary in order to obtain peace for the world…because only she can help you.”

Pope Francis called the Rosary a “simple contemplative prayer, accessible to all… In the Rosary we turn to the Virgin Mary so that she may guide us to an ever closer union with her Son, Jesus, to bring us into conformity with him, to have his sentiments and behave like him… The Rosary is an effective means for opening ourselves to God.”

So let us make or renew our resolution to pray this simple prayer, as so many popes, saints, and Mary herself have encouraged us to do; for peace in our hearts, in our homes, in our families, and in our world!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Working Against God

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Pride comes before a fall, the old saying goes.

When we succumb to pride, we find ourselves insisting that our way is the right way. Over time, we might come to find, like Paul and Martha, that we were actually working against God, and our failure to humbly and honestly examine ourselves has led us down that path.

In the First Reading, Paul is looking back on how he thought that, by persecuting the early Church, he was nobly defending the faith of his fathers. In reality, he was actually fighting against the God of his fathers.

Martha thought she was doing the right thing by busying herself with serving and being a good hostess. In reality, she was quite literally failing to listen to the words of Jesus, and asking her sister to do the same.

One of the antidotes to this type of stubborn pride comes in today’s Psalm: “Guide me Lord on the everlasting way”.  If we turn to God and ask him to guide us, it helps prevent us from unwittingly working against God.

Fortunately, both Paul and Martha changed their ways. Paul became a great defender and preacher of the Faith. The wiser Martha of John 11 goes out to meet Jesus and has confidence in Him as the Messiah.

So as we reflect on today’s readings, let us pray that God will guide us on His everlasting path, and give us the humility to see when we have veered off it.

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J.M. Pallas has had a lifelong love of Scriptures. When she is not busy with her vocation as a wife and mother to her “1 Samuel 1” son, or her vocation as a public health educator, you may find her at her parish women’s bible study, affectionately known as “The Bible Chicks.”

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Seeing All the Characters

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The story of The Good Samaritan is referenced widely in religious and secular circles. We all want to be the Samaritan, the one who reaches out and helps. We see the Samaritan as the hero of the story. The role of the Samaritan is indeed critical. Without him, the robbed man would have probably died on the road. However, we shouldn’t dismiss the other characters in Jesus’ story. In particular, the robbed man and the innkeeper.

As much as the Samaritan offered his assistance, the robbed man had to accept it in order for this scene to work out. He could have curled up, expecting the worse, and turned aside as the Samaritan came down the road. He could have rejected the help since it came from someone considered “unclean.” When we are hurt, excluded, or in the depths of pain and sorrow, it can be easy to lash out at those who would help us instead of raising our head and hands to accept what they are offering.

There is also the innkeeper. A few years ago, I read a book by Jane Knuth, a St. Vincent de Paul volunteer, entitled Thrift Store Saints: Meeting Jesus 25⍧ at a Time. In one section, a donor is feeling that she doesn’t do enough for the organization, since all she does is give money. She does not dedicate time, doesn’t encourage others to come to the store, etc. Jane responds to her:

A careful reading will reveal that it’s the innkeeper who actually does the work of taking care of the hapless traveler. The Good Samaritan gives some preliminary help and foots the bill, sure, but the innkeeper is put in charge of the long-term effort.

The parable shows a need for both immediate assistance and a long-term refuge.

As we continue on in this pandemic, I believe it’s important to recognize that there are times we fill each one of these rolls. There may come a time when we feel like the robbed man. Circumstances swirl around us and everything is beyond our control. We hurt, we bleed, we cry out for aid.

There may be days we need to be the Good Samaritan. We can reach out to a friend or neighbor who is struggling. We can drop everything to listen when a friend loses a job, or isn’t sure how they are going to handle working from home while their children participate in virtual learning.

We may also be called to be the innkeeper. We are in this for the long haul. We may have the opportunity to walk with someone through loss, grief or sorrow. Perhaps we have had to take on caregiving duties for a family member, or find ourselves serving our children’s education in a brand new way. The innkeeper is the daily grind, the one who gets up each day to meet the same problems head on.

Jesus continues to reveal truth to us through this parable, even today.

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Kate Taliaferro is an Air Force wife and mother. She is blessed to be able to homeschool, bake bread and fold endless piles of laundry. When not planning a school day, writing a blog post or cooking pasta, Kate can be found curled up with a book or working with some kind of fiber craft. Kate blogs at DailyGraces.net.

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Have No Anxiety At All

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I’m a worrier. Probably as a typical American, I worry about money a lot. Perhaps many people’s goal each day is to make money. How much can one make in how little time.

I also worry about something bad happening a lot. What if a loved one gets hurt or sick? What if I’m given something I just can’t handle?

Have you ever wondered just how many times the words “fear” or “anxiety” are found in the Bible? When I recently tried to look, it quickly became too many for me to count.

I realize now that more than anything else that what weakens my relationship with God is my lack of trust in Him. In today’s society, we often want to see results immediately. Instant messages, live-time social media feeds, we hold the world in the grips of a quick swipe on our cells or the click of a computer mouse. We tend to concentrate on what’s next without recognizing what’s already in our midst- God’s presence within us.

Today’s readings remind us: Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And, what more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?

The Gospel calls us to ask ourselves, why do we turn against His beloved Son through sin? Is it for genuinely evil ways? This is probably not as common as it may be for the underlying anxiety and distrust we often have.

Perhaps more than anything else, we must take refuge in Him knowing His love for the world will surpass all our flaws.

Ultimately it is only by turning to our Father that we will find the peace we so yearn for. Prayer, indulgences, genuine self-care are some ways to cultivate our relationship with the Lord and demonstrate trust in His saving grace.

What can you do today to re-focus your priorities on His guarantees for His people rather than our doubts?

“Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God is unchanging.” – St Teresa of Avila

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Dr. Alexis Dallara-Marsh is a board-certified neurologist who practices in Bergen County, NJ. She is a wife to her best friend, Akeem, and a mother of two little ones on Earth and two others in heaven above.

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Potential Forecast of a Fair Weathered Disciple

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Today’s Gospel reading is one that I had to read a couple times in order to understand what was going on. Jesus sometimes throws these curved balls where it’s hard to understand exactly where he’s coming from.

The disciples are rejoicing because they’ve seen the power of Christ at work in casting out demons. He reminds them that we should rejoice not because of what we can see God doing or our own ability to share the Gospel, but because we are children of God and he desires us in heaven with him.

It reminds me of how we work so hard at our faith and we don’t always see results. It gets frustrating. How many times have we talked to someone about our faith and they shut us down or treat us like we are weak. Whether it’s praying for an end to abortion or for the conversion of a loved one, sometimes it seems like God doesn’t hear us.

It is easy to be a disciple when we see progress.

It’s easy to be a disciple when the culture is on our side and we have “Catholic Celebrities” encouraging us along the way. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with seeing progress or rejoicing when we have our prayers answered. However, Jesus himself reminds us that we shouldn’t rejoice at results but at the fact that “our names are written in heaven.”

In the first reading we hear of Job and how God blessed him with beautiful daughters. But we all know Job was also blessed with severe trials in order to prove his faithfulness. Trials that would leave most people cursing God. Can you imagine losing your children in a terrible accident? Losing all your animals and livelihood? The only thing left were three servants who were the sole survivors of the tragedies. I pray to God that I can still rejoice and praise him even when faced with hardship.

It’s much harder to wear your faith with pride when you realize being Catholic means that people might not invite you to the neighborhood barbecue. Or when we have to defend Mother Church amidst a period of horrible scandal.

Praising God is much harder when we don’t get the things we want. Catholicism might lose a bit of its appeal when things aren’t going great. But none of that matters. Christ is real and he’s in the Church. He’s present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass all around the world. God the Father calls to us every day in the simple things. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told lately that God talks to us in the silence.

Whether we’re in a period of consolation (where we see and feel God in our lives) or we’re feeling desolation (alone and abandoned) God is still with us. We are still called to be saints and there is a great plan for our lives that ends in our union with God in heaven.

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Patrick produces YouTube content for young Catholics on Catholic Late Night and Overt TV. He loves using humor to share the Truth of the Catholic faith with anyone who will listen. He resides currently in Chattanooga, TN and is a parishioner at The Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul. Patrick graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville with a degree in Communication Arts and a Minor in Marketing.

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May The Angels Lead You Into Paradise

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Today is the feast of the Guardian Angels. The first thing that comes to mind for me, and probably for you, is the famous image of an angel protecting a child as he or she walks across a bridge. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of “each believer” having a guardian angel, a special guardian from the time of baptism to accompany us through life. Benedict XVI in an Angelus Address on October 2, 2011 called guardian angels “ministers of the divine care for every human being. From the beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their constant protection.”

Therefore, on this feast, we are celebrating our faith in God’s enduring love and his providential care extended to us each and every day until life’s end. Some of the saints had the blessing to actually see their guardian angel. Whether we can see our angel or not, belief in the guardian angel who accompanies us through life is an act of faith in the God who accompanies us on our way through life and into eternity. We can pray to them for assistance, or we can simply speak with our angel as with a friend.

In the Gospel, Jesus states: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

Our guardian angels remind us that our eternal home, the destination to which we are journeying under their protection, is heaven. Saint Bernard said that we have only to follow our angels, to stay close to them, and then at our death we shall dwell with them in heaven.

I never fail to be moved to tears at the end of the Funeral liturgy when those of us who remain on earth gather around the body of our dear sister and sing this farewell hymn from the Rite for Christian Burial:

“May the angels lead you into paradise;
may the martyrs come to welcome you
and take you to the holy city,
the new and eternal Jerusalem.”

Our guardian angel is a protector, a shepherd who leads us into life. In a way, when we are devoted to our guardian angel we are beginning on earth the life that will be ours in eternity when we will stand in the company of the angels singing with them to the glory to God.

Our veneration of the angels in heaven transforms our hearts in three ways:

  • It leads us to honor and respect ourselves and others who are watched over through the goodness of God by an angel from heaven. We and others are never alone. We and others are never outside of the watchful eye of this angel who sees everything.
  • It leads us to gratitude that God has given us a companion through life to enlighten us, defend us, guide us, and intercede for us, and ultimately to bring about our total dedication to God’s glory in our life.
  • It leads us to hope. The fact that everyone has a guardian angel reminds us that the history of the world is in God’s hands and that the angels who watch over us are at work in each person’s heart to turn them to truth, goodness and beauty, that they might make decisions that will allow God’s loving plan for the world to unfold.

Our guardian angels are always before the face of the Father. We can turn to our own guardian angel in every need, and we can always pray to the guardian angels of others. When someone needs a reminder, comfort, conversion, or strength, turn to their guardian angel because this heavenly minister is right beside this person wherever they are and in whatever situation they find themselves. When you cannot be near someone in need, their angel is always right there with them.

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Sr. Kathryn J. HermesKathryn James Hermes, FSP, is the author of the newly released title: Reclaim Regret: How God Heals Life’s Disappointments, by Pauline Books and Media. An author and spiritual mentor, she offers spiritual accompaniment for the contemporary Christian’s journey towards spiritual growth and inner healing. She is the director of My Sisters, where people can find spiritual accompaniment from the Daughters of St. Paul on their journey. Website: www.touchingthesunrise.com Public Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/srkathrynhermes/ For monthly spiritual journaling guides, weekly podcasts and over 50 conferences and retreat programs join my Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/srkathryn.

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The Little Way of Greatness

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“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”

This is one of my favorite quotes from St. Therese. We celebrate her feast day today.

By all intents and purposes, Therese was not on the trajectory to be a Doctor of the Church. She was a spoiled, youngest child. She got what she wanted, when she wanted. She was raised by, and alongside, literal Saints who adored her and waited on her hand and foot. Yet, little Therese learned too soon what it meant to suffer: she lost her mother at a young age, fell deathly ill, and said goodbye to each of her sisters as they entered the convent. Therese grew up with a holy boldness that women everywhere could learn from: she believed in her vocation and she fought for it, all the way up to Rome.

Therese goes against everything our modern society equates with power, yet she is one of the most revered female Saints in the Catholic Church. She never traveled the world; she never found a cure for cancer or invented a new technological advancement. In her quiet cloister in the sleepy town of Lisieux, before she even reached the age of 25, Therese changed the face of morality. She was simply herself; she didn’t try to be anyone else. She modeled the great paradox: we can accomplish great deeds in our littleness. She paved a way for us to strive for holiness by doing everyday activities with love.

From the Little Flower of Lisieux, we learn the vital importance of rejecting the lie from Satan that we have to accomplish great things (in the eyes of the world) to achieve greatness. We learn to reject the lie that we have to attain a certain degree of social status or age in order to be a Saint. And we learn that, in the end, it matters little what we do, but that it was done in love.

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Sarah Rose hails from Long Island and graduated from Franciscan University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Theology & Catechetics. She is happily married to her college sweetheart John Paul. They welcomed their first child, Judah Zion, in 2019. She is passionate about her big V-vocation: motherhood, and her little v-vocation: bringing people to encounter Christ through the true, the good, and the beautiful. She loves fictional novels, true crime podcasts/documentaries, the saints (especially Blessed Chiara Luce Badano), & sharing conversation over a good cup of coffee. She is currently the Coordinator of Young Adult Ministry at St. Cecilia Church in Oakley, Cincinnati. You can find out more about her ministry here: https://eastsidefaith.org/young-adult OR at https://www.facebook.com/stceciliayam.

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Before You Rest Your Head

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 “The Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head…”

I don’t know about you but I am happy when I can lie down in my bed at night. I’m safe. I’m warm. I’ve eaten during the day…. And there is nothing wrong with that.

My heart, however, wonders at these words of Jesus.

“Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus is not sugarcoating his expectations of those who would be his disciples. He asks for everything. To give up every security. Every excuse. To make a complete break with all loyalties and attachments that hinder our relationship with him being total, complete, entire.

“No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

To follow Jesus we have to abandon everything that we have put into building up a “kingdom” that revolves around us in order to take up residence and to minister in God’s Kingdom.

What is this “everything” that we need to abandon? If we confine ourselves to the words and events presented in the Gospel today we can feel that we are pretty safe. We probably aren’t going to be asked to be homeless if we follow Jesus. If our parents are sick no one is going to begrudge us time off for caring for them, even if we are in full-time ministry. And as to saying good-bye to our family at home, we have a thousand ways of staying in contact now with them between texting and video calls, and watching their lives play out before us daily on our Facebook feeds. We probably won’t miss a minute of their lives even if we are a thousand miles away.

The call of the “all” woven into this Gospel reading can be unconsciously reduced to a problem that the people speaking to Jesus that day had to deal with.

So what is the “all” that we might be called to abandon in order to follow Christ?

In these days of protests and the struggle for racial justice and harmony Pope Francis gives us one direction where this “all” might actually force us into conversion if we wish to be Jesus’ disciple.

In his encyclical, Joy of the Gospel, he spends over twenty paragraphs reflecting on some of the challenges of today’s world (nos. 50-75). As I read these numbers I could feel Jesus pointing out the stark options I had before me if I wished to follow him:

“You need to say no to an economy of exclusion if you wish to follow me. Think about where you shop. What are your needs. What you can’t do without. Go first and say no to the new idolatry of money and then come and follow me. Those decisions that put money before people….employees, the disenfranchised, the people “in the way” of progress. The one who contributes to and profits from a financial system which rules rather than serves is not fit for the Kingdom of God. Only after committing yourself to counter policies that promote inequality and spawn violence, can you come and follow me.”

As I listen to these invitations in my heart, I begin to shift in my seat. This hits home much more than “he who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

The “cost” of following Christ today, the “all” that must be abandoned in order to be fit for the Kingdom of God is, in one way, the whole system we keep propped up—personally and as a society—to make sure that we are taken care of at the expense of others. The cost of being Christ’s disciple is detachment from prejudices, entitlement, wealth, prestige, fixing the system so we get ahead, carrying forward and acting out of polices which imprison individuals and peoples in situations of inequality, poverty, and violence, excluding others, turning a blind eye to those caught in the spiral of poverty so deep that they are excluded from the table….

We all know at least one of these situations. We might find it in our heart, in our families, in our parishes, in our cities, in our schools….

Now is the time to “put our hand to the plow” and make a decision to “say no” to systems that have formed us through our life, perhaps, but which now we know are so totally inadequate for life in the Kingdom. The world needs to take a giant leap forward in respecting the human dignity of each of God’s children.

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

So I may still go to sleep tonight, safely in my bed. But my heart has been disquieted by Jesus who calls me as his disciple to be the voice of love in this world, to choose humility, to repent of prejudice, to push others ahead of myself, praying that they will have more than I, determined to address any situation of inequality I encounter in my personal circle.

And you?

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Sr. Kathryn J. HermesKathryn James Hermes, FSP, is the author of the newly released title: Reclaim Regret: How God Heals Life’s Disappointments, by Pauline Books and Media. An author and spiritual mentor, she offers spiritual accompaniment for the contemporary Christian’s journey towards spiritual growth and inner healing. She is the director of My Sisters, where people can find spiritual accompaniment from the Daughters of St. Paul on their journey. Website: www.touchingthesunrise.com Public Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/srkathrynhermes/ For monthly spiritual journaling guides, weekly podcasts and over 50 conferences and retreat programs join my Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/srkathryn.

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Angels

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It seems many of us don’t give angels a lot of thought. When we do think about them, we tend to think about them in either a childish way (“Angel of God, my guardian dear…”) or in a superstitious way (as evidenced by most books on angels found on the shelves of your local bookstore). Maybe the scant information about angels causes us to dismiss them as a quaint or useless fiction. But what is true?

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the three archangels mentioned in Scripture by name. Based on the Scriptural references, we actually know quite a bit about angels:

  • they are created beings (Psalm 148:2-5)
  • there are many, many angels (Daniel 7:10, Apocalypse 5:11, Psalm 67:18, Matthew 26:53)
  • they are of a higher order than humans (Psalm 8:6)
  • some of them turned against God and fell from grace (Genesis 3, 6, Apocalypse 9:11-15, 12:7-9, Luke 10:18)
  • these evil angels tempt humans to destruction (Matt 25:42, 2 Peter 2:4, Ephesians 6:12, 2 Corinthians 11:14 and 12:7)
  • they minister to God (Daniel 7:9-10; Tobit 12:15; Revelation 8:2-5)
  • they minister to us (Job 1:6, 2:1; Matt 18:10; Hebrews 1:14)
  • they are messengers to us (Judges 13, Daniel 8, Zechariah 1 ,2, 4, 5; Luke 2:9, etc.)
  • they are personal guardians to us (Genesis 24:7, Psalm 33:8, Matthew 4:6, 18:19; Hosea 12:4, Acts 12:7)
  • they are guardians of whole peoples (Exodus 14:19, Baruch 6:6, Daniel 10:12-21; Acts 16:9)
  • there is a hierarchy of 9 orders of angels: Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim (Ezekiel 1, Isaias 6, 1 Thes 4:15, Ephesians 1:21, Colossians 1:16)
  • the names of several archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael (Daniel 8, 10:13, 12; Tobit 12:15, Luke 1:19,  Apocalypse 12:7)

At every Mass, we join with the angels in praying the Gloria and the Holy, Holy, Holy. At funerals, we invoke their assistance for the deceased (“May the angels lead you to Paradise”). This compilation is not exhaustive, but it gives a good summary of what is true about angels: there are myriads of angels ministering before the Throne of God, and they are our fellow-creatures, friends, helpers, guides, defenders, and messengers.

We are each given an angel to be with us on our journey to the Heart of the eternal Father. He has given us each a companion to strengthen us in our weakness, keep our eyes open to God and His will, block for us every wrong way and point out the pitfalls the Enemy has set before us. In Heaven, we will rejoice with this companion forever before the Face of the Father!

So we can pray: Guardian Angel, guide and guard me. St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, watch over us. St. Michael, Friend of the friends of God, protect and defend us!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Alone Together

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As a Christian, I feel as though it’s easy to talk about Jesus’ suffering and death, but it’s a lot harder to understand my own. What do you do, for example, when you’re doing your best to remain faithful to God, but tragedy strikes and God doesn’t come with healing or seem to come at all? Have we been left behind, like a kid in a park who didn’t make it into the van with his brothers and sisters? Somehow I don’t think so, because the Bible tells another story: that God’s apparent absence can actually be one of the most powerful means of union with Christ. It’s counterintuitive, it’s paradoxical, but it’s scriptural and it’s true; so please, put some milk in the steamer and let me explain.

First of all, in our opening reading, we meet Job, who might as well be the poster child for hard knocks. After many years of faithfulness to God, he is struck down in a satanic attack. This man experiences the death of all his children, financial ruination, and loss of health. Amidst it all, he continues to seek God and justice, even as his “friends” attempt to convince him that he is getting what he deserves. In the heat of the struggle, Job is alone. He doesn’t experience God’s presence or healing in any way.

If we compare Job to Jesus, we see two innocent men enduring great suffering as a consequence of satanic activity. Job was battling for his own soul, while Jesus took upon himself the sin of the world. Shortly before he died, Jesus let out a cry of pain from having entered fully into the human condition: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46).

At face value, it can seem as though in that moment on the cross Jesus was despairing, but his words were actually a direct quotation from Psalm 22. At that time, to quote the first line of a scriptural passage was to draw attention to the entire body of the text. The psalmist begins by describing the torture of God’s chosen one—both spiritual and physical—but ends by saying, “[God] has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; and he has not hid his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (vv. 23-24). In quoting this psalm, Jesus showed that he maintained tremendous hope until the very end.

In centuries past, Martin Luther and John Calvin, the founders of Lutheranism and the Reformed tradition within Protestantism, believed that Jesus did despair on the cross as a result of the Father venting his wrath onto his beloved son. They referred to this idea as “penal substitution,” because Jesus was said to be the substitute or replacement for the sinner. While having its problems, this concept still has a lot of good elements: We can affirm, for example, that Jesus did replace us on the cross; his was an entirely unique sacrifice made “once for all,” but the fathers of the Church and the Catholic tradition have long understood the cross in terms of Jesus bringing his loving bond with the Father into the dimension of human suffering, thereby transforming it from within (Heb. 10:10).

This transformation is what makes the cross an example for us and the way in which we participate in Christ’s redemptive work (1 Pet. 2:21, Col. 1:24). The Apostle Paul taught that Jesus was the representative of man, the “last Adam,” who restored to a wounded humanity the ability to become sons and daughters of God (1 Cor. 15:45). We mature as God’s sons and daughters in the same way Jesus did: we learn obedience by what we suffer (Heb. 5:8).

This means that through faith in Christ, we can face the same suffering that Job experienced armed with the knowledge that our intimacy with our risen Lord has never been greater. We can meet Jesus in our solitude and know that we are “alone together.” Always together.

(For further reading on the meaning and experience of Jesus’ sacrifice, please see the book What is Redemption? by Philippe de la Trinité.)

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Nikol M. Jones is in her final year at Franciscan University’s Master’s in Theology and Christian Ministry program where it has been her joy to learn how to integrate the tools of modern biblical scholarship with the principles of biblical interpretation set forth by the Catholic Church in the service of the Word of God. She also has a passion for creating artwork and children’s books that honor the life and teachings of Christ. When she’s not studying or painting, she utilizes her writing and organizational skills as an administrative assistant. You can connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikol-m-jones-4b9893140/.

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What is Your Opinion?

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The Gospel for today basically describes 2,000 years of moral teaching with one simple question, “What is your opinion?” Jesus asks this to the chief priests and elders and gives them a scenario of morality.

Now remember, Jesus knows everything. He knows their hearts, he knows that they have begun to go against the teachings of faith and instead have become hypocrites, and he knows that they have been created with a deep sense of morality coming from God himself.

So even though they are not following the law, Jesus is confident that deep down they know what it is and what they should be doing. He is so confident that he asked them what they believed was right and what was wrong in this scenario. “What is your opinion?”

This is hugely important for bringing a sense of morality into our fallen world today. We all know that our culture right now is not the reasoned and deductive culture that maybe an Aquinas or Augustine grew up in. We are living in a world that is more and more focusing on personal experience and feeling than on objective truth.

But what if we could get people to see the truths of the faith, of morality, and of God, from their own personal experience and feelings? That is to say, what if we could bring people to the same objective truth of God, by way of their personal experience?

Sound like a tall order? Sound like it could easily turn into relativism where whatever we feel or think becomes fact? And yet, Jesus does just this in today’s Gospel. He doesn’t use proofs or logic. He doesn’t come in with an “if this then that” scenario. He appeals to their hearts. “What do you think?” He knows that if we think deep enough, then the truths we were all created with are still shining somewhere deep inside us, even if we aren’t willing to admit it or even live by them.

In this way, Jesus helped them to realize the objective truth of morality through their own thoughts and feelings. If we believe God has created us as good and that he has inscribed laws deep into our hearts, then we must believe that people are still capable of remembering these truths.

So when we talk to people about what we believe as Catholics or what is right and wrong, let’s try hearing of others personal experiences and try to get them to see from those experiences the deeper and objective truths of God and the faith. Then what tends to happen is that people can see morality as welling up from deep inside, instead of being mandates imposed on us from the outside. The objective truths of God are in there, we just have to help coax them out. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is Director of Evangelization for the North Allegan Catholic Collaborative and the founder of Rodzinka Ministries. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

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You Are Our Refuge

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We are certainly living in a quickly changing time. When I was in grade school in the 50’s (gulp), adults talked about great occurrences 5, 10, 20 or 30 years prior. These days, something big is happening almost every week. We have an important election coming up and never in my lifetime have there been two candidates that are complete polar opposites. It’s kind of scary! Yet, has anything really changed since Jesus’ time? The persecution of believers began when Jesus started his public ministry. Humanity has changed very little. We have a fallen nature that we need to fight against every day.

If you grew up in a God-fearing family and have strayed away from the faith of your youth, then today’s reading from Ecclesiastes might be good for you 11:9 – 12 – 8.  “Remember your creator in the days of your youth”. I can certainly relate to those words. I was touched by the Lord at four years old in the basement of a Free Methodist Church. I sometimes wonder if I would be a deacon if weren’t for the Pastor’s wife that picked me up for Sunday school. She modeled prayer and love for Jesus. She loved that little guy (me) and taught him well.

I doubt that the disciples in Luke 9:43 – 45 thought much about their childhood. (Remember, Jesus is the one that told them to back off and let the children come to him.) Jesus says, pay attention to what I am telling you. Yes, I know that he withheld its meaning from them, but given time they still didn’t get it. Except for John, where were the others at the foot of the cross? Wasn’t Jesus always their refuge? Yet, in our daily moments of distraction from God due to our sadness, grief, anger, loneliness, being forgotten, self-pity, etc., we may step away from God’s refuge and wallow in our own misery. But wait. Is that really necessary? As Catholics we have the greatest gift in the universe. It is not a symbol or a thought in our minds and hearts. It is truly his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity that has entered into us in the Eucharist. Yes, it is true. If you would like a refresher, go to John 6 and read it several times. It is Jesus himself teaching the universal Church about the Eucharist. And what happened after that? They all left. … except the apostles. Jesus did not soften his words to pacify the crowd. He delivered it as it was, solid truth. And now, 2000 years later, people are still walking away from him, not believing his great gift of the Eucharist.

Yes, our refuge is in him. He gives us what we need. Just imagine being in His arms as John was at the Last Supper as he was giving himself to them (Eucharist).

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Deacon Dan Schneider is a retired general manager of industrial distributors. He and his wife Vicki recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They are the parents of eight children and twenty-nine grandchildren. He has a degree in Family Life Education from Spring Arbor University. He was ordained a Permanent Deacon in 2002.  He has a passion for working with engaged and married couples and his main ministry has been preparing couples for marriage.