“Like the early Franciscans, we too are ‘joyous penitents’ who seek to spread the Gospel by showing what a happy thing it is to live it.” — Mary Agnes, PCC
(The early Christians were a joyful lot despite the persecutions. We all need to recapture the joy that ought to characterize a life well-lived.)
We deacons would do well to heed Deacon Sean’s words in the quote for the day. Challenging words, aren’t they, especially when we are weary from whatever and the last thing we may want is another person presenting themselves.
Sometimes, perhaps, we get caught up with preoccupations about what our ministry should be. “What is your ministry, deacon?” we often hear.
In all reality, we deacons are to make our primary ministry our families and our careers. We are to lead to Jesus our coworkers in the office, the patients and clients who seek us out, the customers we serve, and the society in which we live. The person in front of us most often must be our wives. Realizing that our primary ministry is to our wives and our children brings to fruition Pope John Paul II’s words of admonition to deacons during the Year for Deacons back in 2000, when he told us that being a deacon is full time. All that we do, we do as deacons. All that we do, if we are married, we do as married men. Both are vocations that completely permeate our entire lives.
Marriage and Holy Orders are both sacraments of service for the sake of others. They are not given to us to make us holier than someone else. We are called to be married and to Orders so others may be brought to Christ and be saved.
Think about it: How many times has your wife led you to Jesus? More than we would like to admit at first glance. Are you a deacon to her? How have you become a better husband since receiving the grace of Holy Orders?
Serve her as you would serve the Church, brothers.
I posted this quote a year or so ago, but I offer it again, as it is from Deacon Sean Curtan from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, whom I was privileged to meet several years ago when I attended the profession of my friend Mike into the Secular Franciscan Order.
As an ordained deacon I’m called never to forget that the person in front of me is the most important person at the time and I’m called to lead them to Jesus Christ.” – Sean Curtan, SFO
“I believe very firmly….. that the kingdom of heaven is promised by the Lord only to the poor and to them it is given, because when the heart is set on some temporal thing the fruit of charity is lost.” — St. Clare of Assisi
Today’s Old Testament selection in the Office of Readings speaks of the building of the Temple by Solomon. As you recall, his father, David, wanted to build the Temple and got the go ahead from the prophet Nathan until Nathan was corrected by God and hurried back to David and told him it wasn’t his to build, that God had made all things and what could a mere man build that God didn’t already have at his disposal. It would be up to Solomon his son to build it for the Lord. God would build through the work of Solomon. David was excluded because he had spilled too much blood in battle. Solomon would be a king of peace.
Today’s reading then, from Sirach, tells of Solomon’s building of the Temple. It speaks too of his faults, and the hard-headedness of his sons.
In the reading from the Church Fathers, St. Augustine, we hear that the true Solomon is Jesus Christ. Solomon was the prefigure of Jesus himself. “If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do the builders labor.” (Psalm 127:1) All of us are given the duty to help in its construction, but the Lord is the builder. We build by preaching the Word and participating in the sacraments.
It is so easy in our daily lives to end up thinking, “It is all up to me!” How wrong we are when we fall into that trap. It is all up to God, and at the same time, it is our responsibility to open our hearts and minds and allow God to use us for his designs. The poor will not be fed, nor the homeless given shelter, nor the sick healed without our hands, hearts, minds and bodies. But let us never forget that all we do, we do because God gives us the energy, opportunity, time and talent to carry out his will in building the Temple of the Lord, his body.
“O Lord Jesus Christ, I entreat you to give me two graces before I die: first, that in my lifetime I may feel in body and soul as far as possible the pain you endured, dear Lord, in the hour of your most bitter suffering… and second, that I may feel in my heart as far as possible that excess of love by which you, O Son of God, were inflamed to undertake so cruel a suffering for us sinners.” — St. Francis of Assisi
St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote this in his catechism (my translation of the Italian text I use):
The present time is a time for conversion. Confess what you have done in word and deed, whether in the day or in the night. Convert in the favorable time, and on the day of salvation you will receive heavenly treasure. Clean once again the vessel of your soul so you may receive grace in abundant measure. In fact, forgiveness is given equally to all, but sharing in the Holy Spirit is given in proportion to the faith of each person. If you have labored little, you will receive little; if however you have done much, much will be the award. ” St. Cyril of Jerusalem
My homily next weekend will be about returning to the Lord. As St. Cyril reminds us, now is the time for conversion, for returning to the Lord. Our turning, our journey back, our approaching of the Lord once again begins with confession — confession of our sins and confession of our faith. The Lord assures us of complete forgiveness. We are all forgiven completely when we ask for this forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The real question is, how open, how receptive is our soul to the workings of the Holy Spirit, to grace? How disposed are we to receive in abundance the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in our lives? We are more and more disposed, open and receptive, the more we dedicate ourselves to the works of Jesus in our daily lives.
Let us return to the Lord with all our hearts, minds, souls and bodies. Let us once again love with the Lord!
“Jesus Christ is all my riches; he alone is sufficient for me.” — St. Louis of Toulouse, OFM
“Purity of heart, carefully and constantly guarded, becomes the rule, and the radiance, of our whole life, and of every word and deed.” — Blessed John XXIII, SFO
“To think of Jesus is like a breath of new life. His kindness fills one to the brim. His sweetness is in overflowing measure.” — St. Clare of Assisi
“Poverty means to stand with those who are left out of today’s society. That means the poor in a variety of senses: the homeless, the physically and sexually abused, the imprisoned, the unwed mothers, the illegal immigrants, the unemployed, the rejected homosexuals, the suicidal, as well as the disadvantaged in distant lands.” — Roland J. Faley, TOR
“Even when confronting sin and evil, our goal must be transformation through bringing and witnessing God’s love.” — Dan & Sarah Mulholland, SFO
“The more we come to know the heart of Christ, the more will our hearts be awake, beating with the rhythm of the Spirit.” — Josephine Rush, OSF
Here is a bit of wisdom attributed to Thomas Merton by Deacon David Backes in Deacon Digest, July-August 2010
The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist….. destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
This form of violence is a most subtle threat. It destroys the person, and it destroys the fabric of society.
I think if we would just slow down enough to reflect on our lives we would cease to destroy our environment, cease killing our unborn, stop hurting and abusing our family members.
We would be a more just society. A holier people.
“Prayer is the cup for drinking the grace of the Holy Spirit from the abundant fountain of delight, the Blessed Trinity.” — St. Bonaventure, OFM
“Live always in the truth, that you may die in obedience.” — St. Francis of Assisi
I was going through boxes of stuff today that were cluttering the floor of my bedroom closet. In one of them were my notes of a retreat I made in Rome back in 1978. I believe the retreat master was Henri Nouwen who lived with us for a year. Here are a selection of tidbits of wisdom I jotted down.
Do what you can – not what you can’t.
Boredom is a choice.
Love is not self-conferred; it comes from outside.
To accept love is to accept forgiveness.
Face the fact of daily death – nothing can then harm us.
Live the answer; then you will understand.
The Spirit makes chaos an abyss of creativity.
Put the man Jesus together, then the world will fall into place.
A ministry without love is power corrupted.
Let things stand the test of time.
Never treat anyone as a threat to your vocation.
To deny sinfulness is to deny need.
The greater my ego, the more I project my ideals on others.
Jesus is always contemporary.
Just add “Lord” and you will be praying.
The ultimate purpose is transformation into Christ.
Truth without love results in disunity.
(I especially love the last statement, and the one about ministry without love resulting in corruption. So good for us to remember.)
“No longer be only a witness; be now fully enfolded in my Love. Open your heart to your brothers and sisters, and you open your heart to Me. For it is through you that I come to all people, to bring My healing and Love to the world.” — Elisa Marie Cady, BSCD
“The Lord be with you always and be you with Him always and in every place.” — St. Clare of Assisi
St. Gregory in today’s Office of Readings has some beautiful words on the unity of faith in the Christian community. Here is an excerpt (my translation from the Italian text I use):
“But among all the words that he (Jesus) speaks and all the graces that he bestows, there is one that is the greatest of all and brings together all the others. It is with these words that Christ admonishes his disciples to always find themselves united in the answers to questions and in their evaluations as to what is good to do; to experience themselves united in one heart and one spirit and to esteem this unity as the one good; to bind themselves in the unity of the Holy Spirit with the bond of peace; to build one body and one spirit; to work together with one calling, animated by the same hope….. The bond of this unity is authentic glory.” — St. Gregory of Nyssa, “Homily on the Canticle of Canticles”; Hom. 15; PG 44, 1115-1118
One of the things I admired about Pope John Paul II was his untiring efforts toward reconciliation between the Churches, especially between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. But also the efforts he made to reach out to our Jewish brothers and sisters, and to the Protestant communities.
It seems to me though that most of the hard work of bringing back together into one flock of Christ all people who call Jesus the Son of God will be done at the local level. Perhaps even at the level of our own families. Our Holy Father has an indispensable role as the successor of Peter and the Vicar of Christ on earth. He leads and enters into aspects of this only he can enter in communion with the other bishops of the world. We the People of God will do most of the legwork.
For we are the face of Christ in the immediacy of the human condition to our neighbor next door.