liberty
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Fortnight For Freedom: Our Most Cherished Liberty

According to Open Doors (a U.S.-based organization that tracks the global persecution of Christians), every month:

  • 322 Christians are killed because of their faith
  • 214 Christian churches/properties are destroyed
  • 722 crimes (such as beatings, false arrests. rapes) are committed against Christians because of their faith

These are sobering numbers. Yet, they are not mere numbers: they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a father who leads his family in prayer daily. It is a girl who dreams of becoming a teacher. It is a pastor who prays over his faith community, trying to teach and enrich their faith.

Here in the U.S., religious persecution seems to be a far-off, “over there” occurrence. However, what is called our “first, most cherished liberty” is constantly being attacked in our secular society. In order to raise awareness regarding persecution and our need to safeguard religious freedom, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declare a “Religious Freedom Week.” This year, it runs from June 22 until June 29.

While the U.S. bishops encourage dioceses and parishes to use as many of the resources for the Fortnight for Freedom as they can, the most urgent call is to prayer.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

In this short video, various religious leaders reflect on the need for American citizens to be vigilant about protecting this freedom, so that all may live in the knowledge that our faith is not simply a “Sunday-morning thing,” but a habit of being that permeates our society.

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?

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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.

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God Is Faithful To Us Even In The Fires Of Life

The first reading for Mass today is one that grabs our imagination and attention. In the book of Daniel, we hear the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (take a few minutes to read it here.)

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has set himself up as a god in Babylon, and is forcing the Jews living in exile there to treat him as such. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are having none of it. Their reward for their faithfulness to God? They get shoved into a furnace.

For most of us, the idea of suffering such a horrific fate because of our religious beliefs is absolutely unthinkable. We give almost no thought to the luxury of going to Mass whenever and wherever we wish, of wearing a cross, a crucifix or some other symbol of our faith openly, or having a religious item on our desk at work.

Yet so many Christians in our world today are suffering the fate of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. On March 10 in Washington, D.C, a joint project between the Knights of Columbus and a group called In Defense of Christians (IDC) was presented at a press conference. Reporters and aide workers gave witness to the  genocide of Christians in the Middle East by ISIS. The stories are hard to bear, but they remind us that the those faithful to God, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are still called upon to hold on to their faith in impossibly brave manners.

I went to Iraq three weeks ago and met a 3-year-old girl whom ISIS members had thrown against a wall. She can no longer talk. Where was her father? He had been murdered, as he was a Christian,” stated Juliana Taimoorazy, an Assyrian Christian and president of Iraqi Christian Relief Council.

“The report has unearthed many stories that the world has not heard,” IDC President Toufic Baaklini told the packed room. “Like the story of Christian women who have been forced into sexual slavery and listed on ISIS slave menus that put a price on ‘Christian or Yazidi’ women by age.”

Baaklini told the story of a woman named Claudia, who was captured and raped repeatedly after ISIS militants saw that she bore a tattoo of a cross. Another woman, Khalia, fought off ISIS militants as they attempted to rape captive girls and take a 9-year-old as a wife.

In the reading from Daniel, the men’s complete abandonment to the will of God, their raw and honest sorrow for their sins and the sins of their people, and their ability to praise God under torturous circumstances end up changing the mind of the king. He releases the men from the furnace, and he wishes peace upon them and his people. (The story continues, but  you’ll just have to read it yourself!)

It would be best for all if the horrors of persecution and genocide of modern-day Christians would have such a swift, decisive and positive solution. We do not know why God is asking this of his people in the Middle East. We do not know why God asked three young men in ancient Babylon to stand up for their faith and refuse to bow down to an idol. We do not know why God has allowed cancer to grow in the body of a loved one, or has allowed an accident which leaves a friend gravely injured.

The only thing we do know: Christ is always with us in our suffering. We are never, ever asked to be alone during hardship, trials, illness, even the torture we’ve discussed here. God is ours, and we are His people, forever and ever.

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Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

One of the most controversial aspects of Catholicism is the Sacrament of Penance. The majority of the people outside the church don’t understand it, but neither do many inside the church. Why do we have to tell a priest our sins? Can’t we just tell God directly?

According to Fr. Eamon Tobin at Catholic.com, the Church requires us to go to confession, because despite our best efforts and the grace of baptism, we continue to sin against God and each other. But the most important reason

why the Catholic Church asks her members to confess their sins to a priest is simply because the Church has always believed that sin, however private, is a community affair. Every sin, however small, wounds the Body of Christ, the members of the Church. . . . When any of its members sin, they all suffer. Moreover, because my sins wound the community and diminish its effectiveness, reconciliation must include the community and not just God. In the confessional, the priest is the representative of God and of the community. In the confessional, the priest represents the whole Christ, the Head (Jesus) and the members (the Church).

We would like to think that our sins go unnoticed or are unseen. We are like the child who steals a piece of candy from a store, sure that no one will ever notice. Or we become the rationalizing adolescent who thinks to herself, “Hey, it’s a big store – they have lots of money. They won’t miss one pair of earrings.”

What we must realize in order to mature in our faith life is that each of our sins – even if they go unnoticed, unseen, hidden away – still harm us and others. That girl who makes a habit of shoplifting becomes an untrustworthy friend and employee. A man addicted to porn in private ends up distancing himself from his wife and family. Imagine the wounds of the Body of Christ: not necessarily the grave wounds of the cross, but the millions and millions of tiny wounds we inflict upon the Body of Christ every day because of our sin.

Lent is the perfect time to got to confession, especially if you have not been in awhile. (Even if “awhile” is years. Or decades. It’s okay.) The Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops have given us this guide to the sacrament and instructions on how to go to confession.

Remember that no matter what you are feeling, God is waiting for you with great joy. He wants the opportunity to unburden you. He longs to hear that you are sorry for misusing the gifts He’s given to you, and most of all, He wants to tell you, “You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”

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Are You Motivated By Fear Or Mercy?

The first reading today is from the book of Jonah, a story familiar to most of us. It’s a good meditation on two great Lenten themes: fear and mercy.

Jonah is given an assignment from God: go to Nineveh and straighten those people out. The people of Nineveh are, frankly, a mess, and Jonah has to put the fear of God into them, so to speak. Once Jonah gets to Nineveh, his preaching (first a message of fear and then of mercy) gets a terrific response.

Diane Jorgensen, at Creighton University’s Online Ministries, talks about these themes of fear and mercy:

We are so like Jonah, desiring goodness and prosperity for ourselves and others, and yet also wanting “evil doers” to be punished. Why should terrorists, criminals, selfish people, druggies (name any group you despise) receive the same measure of mercy as I do?  It offends our sense of justice and fairness. Pope Francis said it well several years ago: ‘I think we too are the people who, on the one hand, want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand, at times, like to find a stick to beat others with, to condemn others. And Jesus has this message for us: mercy. I think — and I say it with humility — that this is the Lord’s most powerful message: mercy. …God’s mercy…is an abyss beyond our comprehension.’

Today, pray about your relationship with God and others. Do you act and react out of fear or from a place of mercy? Do you fear God’s assessment of you, or are you open to His deep and loving mercy?

 

 

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Spending Time With The Suffering Servant

We know it’s a good idea to spend time during Lent reading and meditating over Scripture. But that can be overwhelming: where does one start? Is there one Biblical book that is “better” than another for Lent? What does it mean to “meditate on Scripture” anyway? Let’s take a look at the book of Isaiah, and the verses that refer to the Suffering Servant.

Even if the “Suffering Servant” doesn’t sound familiar to you, you will recognize the chapters of Isaiah that refer to him:

Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased.
Upon him I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry out, nor shout,
nor make his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.
He will faithfully bring forth justice. (Is. 42:1-3)

The Jewish listeners of this passage would recognize that Isaiah, the prophet, was referring to the Messiah, the Promised One of God, the One who would redeem humanity and save the nation of Israel. As Christians, we understand that Isaiah is foretelling the mission of Christ.

Of course, many Jews believed that the Messiah would be an earthly king, a man who would free Israel from the oppression of the Roman Empire. Yet, God’s plan would be that Emmanuel, God-With-Us, would be a servant, an example of mercy, love and justice, one who would wash the feet of his followers.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) offers a wonderful study of the Suffering Servant passages in Isaiah. You can find it here. Why not spend some time learning more about the Suffering Servant this Lent?

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Evangelizing Our Companions on the Lenten Journey

If you’re of a certain age, you probably had to read some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in high school or college. (Don’t worry; there won’t be a quiz.) Chaucer’s work follows a very colorful cast of characters on a pilgrimage.

As we make our spiritual pilgrimage, we have our own host of colorful characters. The thing is, we often don’t get to choose who will journey with us. We don’t pick our co-workers or most of our family members. And while our pilgrimage often makes perfect sense to us, it may not seem so obvious to those around us.

Every Catholic has a duty to evangelize. This can be scary: “What, me, preach? I’m not a theologian or a priest. I don’t know what to say.” Well, part of that duty to evangelize means that we have to know our own Faith.

But evangelization doesn’t have to be scary. Most of the time, it’s just sharing our Faith journey with others. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has some great ideas on how we can do this. For instance, maybe one of your co-workers doesn’t understand the whole “no meat on Fridays” thing:

You love pepperoni pizza. You eat it all the time. Suddenly, you can’t have it on Fridays?! What could possibly be going on? It must be that Catholic thing, again. Absolutely! On Fridays during Lent, we particularly remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. In memory of this great sacrifice, we continue the tradition of penance and sacrifice – abstaining from meat on Fridays is an outward manifestation of an interior reality: the conversion of our hearts. As Pope John Paul II has said, “In fact, the external aspects of fasting, though important, do not convey the full measure of the practice. Joined to the practice should be a sincere desire for inner purification, readiness to obey the divine will and thoughtful solidarity with our brothers and sisters, especially the very poor.” Christ himself fasted and prayed in the desert. Through fasting and praying, we unite ourselves with the sacrifice of Christ and offer him reparation for our sins and failings. It’s a little thing to give him in the face of his ultimate sacrifice, but what a grace that our God accepts and loves little gifts!

You can read more ideas for evangelization from the USCCB here.