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The Heart of Jesus

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Sometimes people in the Church speak about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as goopy spirituality. I prefer to think of our different expressions of devotion as a matter of preference. Some people love gaudy colors and lights, and some people prefer something understated and are happy with minimalist ascetics. But no matter which way we prefer to slice the cake, today is a Solemnity. It is not a memorial with or without a capital ‘m” and it is not a feast day. It is one of the highest expression of our adoration and worship of Almighty God.

Yet, does this devotion stop at a beautiful image on a mantle piece that is there as a sign of Our Lord’s protection and blessing upon our homes and families?

Does this devotion stop at warm thoughts about God’s heart being pierced by a lance, as is recounted in today’s Gospel?

Does it stop at the amazing reality that many Eucharistic miracles have been blind tested by scientists all over the world and they all confirm that the host that had become flesh is living heart tissue of a man who has been brutalized?

Does our devotion stop at the fact that Our Lord has appeared twice to bring awareness to the Universal Church that His Sacred Heart is the fount of Divine Mercy from which blood and water gush forth as expiation and salvation for the whole world?

God’s love for us is “crazy” or stated in a more sanitized fashion; “God’s love for us is other. God is Other.” His Sacred Heart is limitless love and mercy, and therefore our devotion to Him can always be growing and always be more and more total.

Today’s Solemnity is the perfect opportunity for us to run to the Lord with our hearts and to ask Him for the great-grace of receiving His abundant love. Today we can ask for the great-grace of loving God with our whole minds, hearts, souls, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves for love and obedience to Him who St. John says, “loved us to the end.”

His Heart is outside of His chest. His Heart is burning and pining for love. The only way to satiate our Lover’s thirst is to return love for love. Let us set no bounds to our devotion.

And not only that, but we can also count on St. Paul who says, “God is never outdone in generosity.” So I pray that today you and I will experience a huge influx of His infinite grace in our hearts, minds, and souls. We were made for this. We were made to be in communion with His Sacred Heart and to adore Him for all eternity.

Sr. Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi  is a Daughter of St. Paul, women religious dedicated to evangelization in and through the media. She has a degree from Boston College and the Augustine Institute. She has offered workshops, presentations, and retreats around the country. She currently serves as the head of marketing and sales at Pauline and one of the guides of Spiritual Accompaniment—the gemstone of the My Sisters online faith community.

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Pray for Ireland!

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Much has been written about Mary, the young woman of Nazareth who said ‘’yes” to God. The gentle Mother who calls us to her Son, known by so many names–the Morning Star, Immaculate Heart, Our Lady of Good Counsel to name a few. We place crowns on her statue, and maybe say a rosary–it’s all so peaceful.

Our Lady of the Rosary, however commemorates the victory of Christendom over the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century, in a bloody battle at Lepanto, Greece. Pope Pius V called upon all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and history recounts that Christians gathered in villages and churches to pray during the epic battle. Over 30,000 lives, both Christian and Muslim, were lost but the Ottoman forces were turned back from Europe. This Is Mary Victorious–she who praised the God who showed ‘’the strength of his Arm…He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.”

Just last month–the month of Mary–the island nation of Ireland voted to ‘reform’ it’s abortion laws. Their constitution made abortion legal only if the life of the mother is at risk, but on May 25 they voted to allow abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.

We’ve been down this road before. Already, the pro-abortion lobby is claiming abortion restrictions are ‘cruel, inhuman, and degrading.’ The culture of death prevailed, and more innocent lives will be lost. Why were the prayers of the faithful, entreating Our Lady to intervene in Ireland, not answered? Why was this battle lost?

Who can deny that the evil one has an advantage in our day–causing confusion and distorting the truth. As W. B. Yeats wrote:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

This is exactly when we must call out to God to strike a blow to the enemy, and show that the victory has been won. Our prayers for Ireland have indeed been answered, although we can’t see the victory just yet. But the victory is won–Christ has harrowed hell and risen from the dead.

Let’s rise up with our rosary beads in hand, and continue to  invoke the Blessed Mother, Mary, Queen of Victory, to turn the tide on the culture of death.  Blessed Pope Pius IX said: “Give me an army saying the Rosary, and I will conquer the world.” Let’s put out the call for warriors on our Facebook, and Twitter accounts and join that army in praying the Rosary for an end to abortion. And remember, ‘greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ (1Jn 4:4)

Pamela Pettibone joined Diocesan’s staff in 2006, after a number of years in the non-profit sector. Her experience is in non-profit administration including management, finance, and program development, along with database management and communications. She was a catechist in her parish RCIA program for over 15 years, as well as chairperson of their Liturgy Commision. Received into the Catholic Church as an adult, Pamela’s faith formation was influenced by her Mennonite extended family, her Baptist childhood, and her years as a Reformed Presbyterian (think Scott Hahn).

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Dependent on God

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Pope Francis appears to to be pretty concerned with something called “Pelagianism.” He has made multiple references to it throughout his pontificate, including his new Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, and recently the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a document specifically addressing Pelagianism in the Church today. Pelagianism is a 4th century heresy, a false teaching taught by an Irish monk named, you guessed it, Pelagius. And Pope Francis says that this heresy still plagues the Church today.

Pelagianism is a heresy that concerns the role of grace in our salvation and sanctification, in how we become holy. In his recent exhortation the pope describes Pelagianism this way:

“Those who yield to this pelagian or semi-pelagian mindset, even though they speak warmly of God’s grace, “ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style”….The result is a self-centred and elitist complacency, bereft of true love. This finds expression in a variety of apparently unconnected ways of thinking and acting: an obsession with the law, an absorption with social and political advantages, a punctilious concern for the Church’s liturgy, doctrine and prestige, a vanity about the ability to manage practical matters, and an excessive concern with programmes of self-help and personal fulfilment. Some Christians spend their time and energy on these things, rather than letting themselves be led by the Spirit in the way of love, rather than being passionate about communicating the beauty and the joy of the Gospel and seeking out the lost among the immense crowds that thirst for Christ” (GE 49,57)

In other words, this new Pelagianism concerns the false idea that a person can earn their own salvation, metaphorically pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. It denies that grace is necessary for sanctification and basically asserts that people are endowed with the ability to live a virtuous, sinless life, and they aren’t dependent upon God to live a life of holiness or to be saved. This also easily leads to a Phariseeism that says, “I live a virtuous life and obey the law, so if you aren’t doing that clearly you’re just more lazy or ignorant than I am.”  However, like the Pelagianism of old, this new Pelagianism is a heresy.

So what does the Church teach about grace and salvation? That answer can be found in the first reading at Mass today. Writing to Timothy, St. Paul says:

“He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, for which I was appointed preacher and Apostle and teacher.”

The process of sanctification, that is, the process of God making us like himself, is entirely initiated by God. Salvation is a total gift that we do not deserve and cannot earn. Pope Francis puts it this way, “The Church has repeatedly taught that we are justified not by our own works or efforts, but by the grace of the Lord, who always takes the initiative” (GE 52). God always acts first. He acts and then invites us to respond. This is the story of Israel in the Old Testament, God freed them from slavery in Egypt first before inviting them to respond by following the Ten Commandments. He didn’t free his people because they deserved it.

However, as St. James says, “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). So we must actually respond to God in concrete ways, we must cooperate with grace. We cooperate with grace by freely loving others. Again, the pope says:

“Only on the basis of God’s gift, freely accepted and humbly received, can we cooperate by our own efforts in our progressive transformation. We must first belong to God, offering ourselves to him who was there first, and entrusting to him our abilities, our efforts, our struggle against evil and our creativity, so that his free gift may grow and develop within us….For that matter, the Church has always taught that charity alone makes growth in the life of grace possible, for ‘if I do not have love, I am nothing’” (GE 56).

Love, willing the good of someone else no matter what it may cost me, is the way we accept the gift of grace  that God offers us. As St. Paul says, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:14). That is one of the sinister results of Pelagianism, a lack of love. For if I think that I have made myself holy than I build myself a little pedestal to stand on which I can look down and judge others from. Pope Francis is concerned with Pelagianism because it quickly makes us Pharisees instead of disciples.

So let’s listen to that first reading at Mass today and pray both for more of the grace necessary for God to make us holy and for more humility to see ourselves as entirely dependent on God. For it would be wrong for us to read this article and think about all the people we know who are Pelagians. Instead we should read this as an examination of conscience. As Pope Francis says at the end of his discussion on this heresy:

“May the Lord set the Church free from these new forms of gnosticism..that weigh her down and block her progress along the path to holiness! These aberrations take various shapes, according to the temperament and character of each person. So I encourage everyone to reflect and discern before God whether they may be present in their lives” (GE 62).

Paul Fahey is a husband, father, and a parish director of religious education. If you like what he has to say, read his work at Where Peter Is, check out his blog, The Porch, or follow him on Facebook.

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Pray for Ireland!

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Much has been written about Mary, the young woman of Nazareth who said ‘’yes” to God. The gentle Mother who calls us to her Son, known by so many names–the Morning Star, Immaculate Heart, Our Lady of Good Counsel to name a few. We place crowns on her statue, and maybe say a rosary–it’s all so peaceful.

Our Lady of the Rosary, however commemorates the victory of Christendom over the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century, in a bloody battle at Lepanto, Greece. Pope Pius V called upon all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and history recounts that Christians gathered in villages and churches to pray during the epic battle. Over 30,000 lives, both Christian and Muslim, were lost but the Ottoman forces were turned back from Europe. This Is Mary Victorious–she who praised the God who showed ‘’the strength of his Arm…He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.”

Just last month–the month of Mary–the island nation of Ireland voted to ‘reform’ it’s abortion laws. Their constitution made abortion legal only if the life of the mother is at risk, but on May 25 they voted to allow abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.

We’ve been down this road before. Already, the pro-abortion lobby is claiming abortion restrictions are ‘cruel, inhuman, and degrading.’ The culture of death prevailed, and more innocent lives will be lost. Why were the prayers of the faithful, entreating Our Lady to intervene in Ireland, not answered? Why was this battle lost?

Who can deny that the evil one has an advantage in our day–causing confusion and distorting the truth. As W. B. Yeats wrote:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

This is exactly when we must call out to God to strike a blow to the enemy, and show that the victory has been won. Our prayers for Ireland have indeed been answered, although we can’t see the victory just yet. But the victory is won–Christ has harrowed hell and risen from the dead.

Let’s rise up with our rosary beads in hand, and continue to  invoke the Blessed Mother, Mary, Queen of Victory, to turn the tide on the culture of death.  Blessed Pope Pius IX said: “Give me an army saying the Rosary, and I will conquer the world.” Let’s put out the call for warriors on our Facebook, and Twitter accounts and join that army in praying the Rosary for an end to abortion. And remember, ‘greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ (1Jn 4:4)

Pamela Pettibone joined Diocesan’s staff in 2006, after a number of years in the non-profit sector. Her experience is in non-profit administration including management, finance, and program development, along with database management and communications. She was a catechist in her parish RCIA program for over 15 years, as well as chairperson of their Liturgy Commision. Received into the Catholic Church as an adult, Pamela’s faith formation was influenced by her Mennonite extended family, her Baptist childhood, and her years as a Reformed Presbyterian (think Scott Hahn).

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Don’t Believe the Lie

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While praying with today’s readings, my mind kept being pulled to the following two lines in the Gospel: “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” I also am drawn to a line in the first reading from 2 Peter 3:17, “Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.”

My own stability is in the way of God, in accordance with the truth, but it hasn’t always been. It is so easy to be led into the error of the unprincipled, to be caught up in a passionate speech of half truths. I keep thinking of all the terrible illustrations in our human history that whip up popular sentiment and leads people to terrible things because they are told to believe a lie. “A wall will protect us”, “a vulnerable life is easily dismissed or disposable”, “someone who has a different way of life or color of skin has a different worth than me”.  This is where my fall from stability can come into play if I am not aware of the truth or choose to ignore the truth.

It is usually very controversial to address the half truth; to call out the lie and state the truth. I have to be as Casting Crowns sings, to “Love You with the Truth.” Why is it that speaking the truth (in love) can be so threatening to others? Is it because we might realize that we’re wrong, that so many mistakes have been made and have to be accounted for and atoned? Atonement is, after all, what allows us to be “Free”.

I would like to believe I am a truthful woman. I do ponder though, how concerned am I with the opinions of others. I can struggle with doubt. I can struggle with the opinions of others, especially when I neglect to be grounded in the teachings of the Gospel. I find His truth in my surroundings and today I was called to these embedded songs (from my long ago youth ministry days). I hope you take a moment to listen to His voice in these songs. Don’t fall into the trap of forgetting that “I Believe in God”. Know your focus is to be on His love and His truth spoken through His son Jesus Christ.  The truth will “set you free”.

Beth Price is a Secular Franciscan (OFS) and spiritual director who has worked in several parish ministry roles during the last 20 years. She is a proud mother of 3 adult children. Beth currently works at Diocesan.

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Stand on the Promise

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Today, Peter writes a beautiful, uplifting and instructive letter, providing a road map of how to live your faith. These words are worthy of hanging on your bathroom mirror so you can read them each morning:

“…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.”  (2 Pt 1:5-7)

But Peter gives us another little gem that will help us in living this life of virtue. He says “…he [Jesus] has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises” (2 Pt 1:4)

Promises. Can you even count the number of promises made to you, or that you have made, left unfulfilled?

I have often given talks to groups of RCIA inquirers and others who question the validity of living a life of virtue. Hearing comments that it is too difficult in today’s cultural climate begs a response. Yes, it is difficult and is getting increasingly so. There are so many unknowns. My response? You are right about the uncertainties – but you must stand on the Promise of Jesus. Stand firm and hard on the Promise. Because unlike everyone else who will let you down after promises made, Jesus never will!

Just what were we promised? Indeed not riches or long life or even true love, rather, that living a life of virtue, according to the Way, will most likely give us, at times, a hard life. And in today’s world a life of ridicule and, yes, even hatred. The beauty beyond all this is that the real Promise of Jesus is Eternal Life, eternal joy! The real Promise of Jesus is peace in our hearts while dealing with the hardships of this world. The real Promise is that if we hold fast to the life of virtue, faith, and trust in God, no matter the consequence, He will be there holding our hand every step of the way. But we must be willing to take that hand and to be guided into the unknown. If we do less and let down our guard to give in to the world’s whims, we are saying that we don’t believe in the Promise, and, we are denying Jesus.

A beautiful but obscure poem titled “God Knows,” published in 1908, starts with some of the most inspiring words I’ve ever read.

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied
‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth and, finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

                                                                   

God Knows, Minnie Louise Haskins, British Poet (1875-1957)

Jeanne Penoyar, an Accounts Manager here at Diocesan, is currently a Lector at St. Anthony of Padua parish in Grand Rapids, MI. While at St. Thomas the Apostle, Grand Rapids, Jeanne was a Lector, Cantor, Coordinator of Special Liturgies, Coordinator of lectors and, at one time, chair of the Liturgy Commission. In a past life, secretary/bookkeeper at the Basilica of St. Adalbert where she ran the RCIA program for the Steepletown parishes. And she loves to write! When relaxing, she likes reading and word puzzles.

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Eucharistic Life

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The feast of Corpus Christi in 1984 was also the date of my First Profession as a Daughter of St. Paul. Though St. Paul usually gets the honors with our usual date for professions being on his feast day at the end of June, that year, for whatever reason, our group had the singular privilege of making our profession on the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This meaning of this Feast has marked my entire religious life.

The image of the Eucharist, the bread broken in the Master and Savior’s hands for the feeding of his disciples and for the life of the world, has always been powerful for me. I remember in 1999 making a pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Paul in Rome. We were told to watch for the moment when we felt St Paul’s presence in a meaningful way. I watched. I waited. And as we walked away from the Three Fountains where St Paul was martyred, trodding the very path the first Christians would have walked in sorrow after his beheading, I myself sorrowed. I had felt nothing of St. Paul’s presence.

Slowly we made our way to the Basilica St Paul Outside-the-Walls south of the Aurelian Walls. I knelt in the confessional, above where St Paul was buried and then went quietly to join my sisters in the large Blessed Sacrament Chapel where there is a crucifix that is said to have spoken to St Bridget in 1370. There a priest celebrated Mass for us. Again nothing. Walking back to my pew after receiving Communion, at last, I heard within myself the words of Jesus: “I am already here within you. I, God.” I was moved to tears. I was looking for an experience, a feeling. All the time, Jesus had been with me in his Eucharistic presence.

Our Pauline spirituality is profoundly Eucharistic, and so is our life and mission. We are to be bread broken for the life of many. Recently, this has come to life for me in a new way. I’ve had this sense that every encounter, every task in the apostolate, everything I write is a form of distributing the body of Christ to others. It is in his body and blood that we have communion with each other, yes, but it is also in his body and blood that we find ourselves together in communion with Jesus, lost in him, where his warmth and presence is always increasing in us.

So as you read today’s readings for the Liturgy, you might want to think about how your life is already Eucharistic, and how certain situations and activities can be a form of giving Christ to others, blessing them with his awesome love. What would change if gradually you were more intentionally aware of this desire of Jesus to be life for the world through you? How is Jesus inviting you to be bread broken for the life of the world? In what way do you share in his suffering, and how are you offering life for others?

Kathryn James Hermes, FSP, an author and spiritual mentor, offers personalized and professional guidance for the contemporary Christian’s journey towards spiritual growth and inner healing. She draws from the spiritual tradition and her own lived experience to lead seekers deep within themselves and through their personal history to deepen their intimacy with and trust in God; live with greater joy, peace, and interior freedom; and encounter the Lord in their past and present life experiences to find healing, grace, and newness of life. She is the director of My Sisters, where people can find spiritual accompaniment from the Daughters of St. Paul on their journey. Sr. Kathryn’s forthcoming book Reclaim Regret: How God Heals Life’s Disappointments will be released in September 2018.

Website: touchingthesunrise.com. Open Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/srkathrynhermes/

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Thirsting for God

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Our family recently experienced the loss of a loved one. A joy-filled, faithful woman who gave a great portion of her time to guiding youth, helping people find jobs, aiding refugees and much, much more. So many people were touched by her that social media was spattered with memorial messages and the line to get into the funeral home was out the door. “You would have thought the Pope died!” someone commented, so enormous was the outpouring of love and attention toward the family of the deceased. She was truly an incredible woman and one who will be missed by myriads. But as cancer consumed her body and her time for the last year and a half of her life, the words of today’s Psalm became more and more real to her “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God.”

Reflecting on her life and her legacy, I recall a refection from a fellow Catholic mom from a couple weeks back. She posed the question, “have you exhausted your lover(s)?” In other words, have you made God come out in search of you time and time again, only to turn around with head bowed in sadness because there has been no reciprocation, no response? Is He exhausted from seeking out your heart and finding it cold and unopened? My family member obviously did not exhaust God, quite the contrary, but do I?

How great is my thirst for my God? Do I long for my eternal home and thus direct my life toward this goal? Or do I allow myself to get bogged down by the trivial trials that each day presents? The baby who won’t sleep through the night, the toddler who sparks an attitude, the preschooler who wants to argue about everything… where does all of this fall on the road to eternity? What significance does it have? If I am truly honest with myself, very little, unless I let it. I can brush it off as life’s drudgery or I can see each of these daily crosses as an opportunity to inch toward sanctification. I pray that with each passing day, I may choose the latter more and more.

“My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God.”

May I exhaust you no longer.

Amen.

Tami Urcia is wife and mother to her small army of boys. She works full time at Diocesan and is a freelance translator and blogger (BlessedIsShe.net and catholicMom.com) She loves tackling home projects, keeping tabs on the family finances, and finding unique ways to love. Tami spent early young adulthood as a missionary in Mexico, then worked and traveled extensively before finishing her Bachelor’s Degree. Her favorite things to do are spending time outside with the kiddos, quiet conversation with the hubby, and an occasional break from real life by getting a pedicure or a haircut. You can find out more about her here.

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3 Simple Tips for Stewardship

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Today’s readings are all about stewardship. I know, I know, it’s a big buzzword in the Church. It can mean anything from giving 10% of you money to the Church all the way to serving the poor. But thankfully Jesus teaches us what proper stewardship is.

My fiance and I recently had a meeting with our spiritual director about stewardship. During the conversation I felt a little awkward because I realized that I was not doing enough and that we had not talked about this enough for our future marriage.

But as the conversation went on I was encouraged with some practical examples that I would like to share:

 

Put aside a special fund every month. This is where you will pull your tithing from, but it is also a fund you will use whenever you want to treat friends to a nice dinner, help the homeless man on the corner, or go out of your way to buy a gift for someone. This ensures that stewardship is not just money going to the Church, but to others as well.

 

Realize that the call to give is a God given calling and our hearts are restless until we truly give. Whether it’s money, service, action, or the classic time, talent, treasure, every time we give we are participating intimately in the divinity of God. Gaudium et Spes even goes so far as to say that, “We can never fully find ourselves except through a sincere gift of self.” This is because God himself is an eternal gift, and because we are made in His image, we are not fully alive until we truly give. This is what makes stewardship about more than just finances, but about the whole person.

 

Figure out the amount of gift that stretches you. Part of stewardship is humbling ourselves before God and realizing that all we have is because of Him. Stewardship should make us a little uncomfortable in the sense that it pulls us out of ourselves and makes us rely on God. Think of the bible story of the woman with a few small coins. She gave all she had and trusted in the Lord’s providence. Now, obviously we have to be prudent, but the more we stretch and give, the happier we ultimately become and the more we rely on Our Father.

 

The first reading speaks of love conquering all and of the need to give to others. Then the Gospel tells us what happens when we become selfish and use our means to exploit or take advantage. Let’s take a hint from Jesus today and try to commit to one practical way we will live out stewardship this week. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. 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. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Happy Feast of the Visitation

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Today we receive the blueprint for Marian devotion from the Gospel of Luke. Happy Feast of the Visitation from all of us here at Diocesan!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. 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. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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God Delights in Me

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Sometimes, the “key” to the Mass readings is found in the Antiphons. Today’s Entrance Antiphon invites us to see and receive our chosenness: “The Lord became my protector. He brought me out to a place of freedom; he saved me because he delighted in me.”

“Delight” is not the word that comes to mind when I consider how others – or God Himself – see me. Do we believe that God “delights” in us? Much of the time, I only see my faults and failings, and I don’t like myself too much. But God still delights in me, or at least in who He created me to be (and I am still in the process of becoming). When we know deeply that God delights in us, that He has saved us, that we have been “born anew” through His Word, we learn to stop grasping for more than we are meant to have. We are content with being loved by Love and we can at last begin to seek ways to love in return.

In today’s Gospel, it is clear that the disciples still do not understand Jesus’ mission of love, even as he takes the Twelve aside to tell them that he will be handed over and condemned to death, mocked, spit upon, scourged, and executed! After this explication of what is about to happen, James and John still come to him to ask for a share in his glory.

What glory? We can assume they were not referring to eternal glory; they still believed, somehow, that Jesus would overthrow the oppression of Israel and establish his rule on earth, and they were close enough to the Master to suggest to him that they should sit right next to him when he took his throne.

Jesus points out to them that they do not know what they are asking. And the other ten apostles become indignant at the request of James and John, concerned that they are being out-maneuvered, left out of the glory, somehow at risk for being given less authority and recognition! As he had done so many times before, Jesus patiently explained that the truth is the exact opposite of what the world values: authority, position, and glory are not found in the power to rule over others but rather in the humble love that serves others like a slave: “Whoever whishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” And he holds himself up as the model when he points out that he did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom.

This lesson must have sunk in deeply and become indispensable “Gospel Grammar,” as St. Peter writes in today’s first reading about our being ransomed with the precious Blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18). Christ poured himself out for us completely, holding nothing back, so that we who were prisoners to sin and darkness might be bought back from the futile ways we learn from the world. The disciples learned this lesson as they walked with Christ and watched him hand himself over to death.

Are we still learning this lesson? Are we still acting according to the futile conduct the world insists will bring us happiness? How far are we on the path to becoming full citizens of the Kingdom of God, surrendering to God who surrenders Himself to us? Are we afraid to put ourselves in service to the Kingdom? Christ is the model to which we must conform our lives: we must be willing to become Bread for the world, to be a libation that is poured out completely for the sake of others.

This does not come naturally to any of us. Self-gift is made possible when we let go of the idea that we need to earn God’s love. And we are impelled to pour ourselves out by the presence of the Spirit and Fire of Jesus within us, which we are given at Baptism and Confirmation.

Finally, we are conformed to the image of the Son when we know with certainty that God saves us because He lovingly delights in us, and we live within the horizons of this unearned dignity.

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax

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Grace as Gift

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Amazing! A whole reading on salvation and not a list of things for us to do to attain it. When a young woman enters religious life (which I did 40 years ago this year), she begins to organize her spiritual life, getting ready for the “great ascent” to the Heights of Union with God where the saints have climbed before us.

When she has lived as a religious for 40 years she begins to let all this dissolve into grace. Why?

The answer is in this first reading from St. Peter. And before you think I’m writing for religious, I’m writing for every person in the pews who feels their shot at holiness is pretty small because their life is not “organized” enough to follow through on practices of spiritual growth. It’s a human dynamic to want to take the bull by the horns and get the job done, to mix metaphors.

But lay your ear down on the blessed Word of God and hear what God is saying: Concerning your salvation, the prophets prophesied about the grace that was to be yours…. In other words, the incredible, unmeasurable GIFT that was to be ours through no merit of our own. These are things the angels themselves longed to look into, but they are ours due to the glories that followed the suffering and death of Christ.

It is because of this amazing spirit-drenched reality which we, after our baptism, can call our home, that we then “gird up the loins of our mind, live soberly,” and set our hopes on the grace which Jesus Christ has brought to us. Hope completely in this grace, not just a bit, as an add on, when I can’t do it by myself. No. Completely.

We have not climbed a mountain, no great accomplishments that merit the reward of our salvation. Instead God has come to us and intimately united us to himself which is our salvation. This makes us want to live and be all that we have received, and even still we set our hopes on the grace of Jesus who willingly gives us his life, becomes our way, and invites us to the truth that never ends.

This morning as I prayed in the early morning hours, the clouds parted a bit to show me the deeper path of the divine Heart of Jesus who sustains me in life and in grace. He looked on me with a mixture of challenge, affection, and mischievous understanding that I would eventually give him everything…eventually…and let go of my own spiritual project.

And so Jesus reminds me, in the last sentence of the first reading, “he who called you is holy…” so be as holy as he, because that is the beauty that will fulfill me. Nothing less. Nothing else.

Then, a sigh. Peace.

Sr. Kathryn James Hermes, FSP, an author and spiritual mentor, offers personalized and professional guidance for the contemporary Christian’s journey towards spiritual growth and inner healing. She draws from the spiritual tradition and her own lived experience to lead seekers deep within themselves and through their personal history to deepen their intimacy with and trust in God; live with greater joy, peace, and interior freedom; and encounter the Lord in their past and present life experiences to find healing, grace, and newness of life. She is the director of My Sisters, where people can find spiritual accompaniment from the Daughters of St. Paul on their journey. Sr. Kathryn’s forthcoming book Reclaim Regret: How God Heals Life’s Disappointments, will be released in September 2018.

Website: touchingthesunrise.com.

Open Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/srkathrynhermes/