“What does evangelization mean if not to carry to all peoples, after first to the cities of Judah, the good news of the coming of Christ on earth?” –Eusebius of Caesarea, writing of John the Baptist and by extension to us.
We need to first evangelize our own local communities and then go out to the whole world and do the same.
The Catholic New Service (see link below right) is reporting Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, spoke of the call priests have to be bearers of compassion, not judgment, to the people. He said, “Do not judge, but save” them. He quoted John in saying, “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
Good advice for deacons too who also are to bear the compassion of Christ to the whole world.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like at Christmas if:
For every dollar spent on a Christmas present, a dollar would be spent on the poor.
For every hour spent shopping, there would be an hour spent with the Lord in prayer.
For every ounce of emotional energy spent on anger or worry, an ounce of spiritual energy would be released into the world to uplift one another.
I sometimes wonder……
The shortest psalm in Scripture is Psalm 116(117). It is a great one to commit to heart. I find that I need to pray it often, as life can be quite a challenge more often than not.
I am usually praying in Italian nowadays. It is such a beautiful language, so poetic and lends itself well to prayer and psalmody. So here is the psalm in Italian.
Lodate il Signore, populi tutti, voi tutte, nazioni, dategli gloria; perche forte é il suo amore per noi e la fedeltá del Signore dura in eterno.
In English:
Praise the Lord all you peoples! All of you, nations, give him glory. For strong is his love for us and the fidelity of the Lord endures eternally.
When times get tough, when all seems lost, when you seem defeated and all alone, pray with all your heart Psalm 166(117). God is so close to us that he literally permeates our being. He never abandons us. He loves us eternally. Hold his hand and be at rest with him.
Advent is a time for longing. Longing for the Lord. We are eager to see him, to be with him, to know him. He is coming.
St. Anselm today in his Proslogion writes:
“Teach me to search for you, and show yourself when I search; I cannot search for you if you do not teach me, nor find you if you do not show yourself. O that I may search for you desiring you and I might desire you searching for you, that I may find you loving you and love you finding you.”
Advent is a time of longing for the Lord. It is a time to search and to find.
Our searching and our finding are done in love. We find the Lord because he loves us by revealing himself in our present circumstances and in the histories of our lives. God teaches us how to search out of his love for us. This is the story of salvation history: God showing us the way back to him, teaching us how to see and approach him and welcoming us home.
Come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!
“Peace is not the absence of violence but the unity of love. It is the love that flows from the wounds of the crucified Christ and the love that embraces us in the Eucharist.” — Ilia Delio, OSF
I shared a cup of coffee with someone today. It was a symbol of this person’s dignity, and a sign of honor extended to me.
It reminded me of another time when someone offered me a very simple meal, and coffee, done with dignity despite poverty, and a gesture of honor to me as guest.
All the finery of a costly ceremony cannot compare to the honor and dignity in a cup of coffee when offered by certain individuals in certain circumstances.
There is dignity in simplicity and honesty. There can be a nobleness even in modest circumstances.
Think of the birth of Our Lord.
He is coming.
For anyone who may want to deny that the developing embryo/fetus is truly a human person, take a look at the website of The Endowment for Human Development:
You will find a wealth of information on embryonic and fetal development, and some absolutely remarkable video of intrauterine human life. You will be amazed! And all presented without a political bias…..
Today is the feast of St. Andrew the apostle. He was the brother of Peter, and the gospel tells the story of Andrew going to his brother and announcing that he had found the Messiah, and “He led him to Jesus.” (John 1, 42)
Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist. He was looking for the one who was to come, of whom John had preached. He found Jesus and listened to him, and did not hesitate to go forth and announce the Good News, first to his brother who would become “the Rock” on which Jesus would build his Church, but also to the ends of the earth. Like the other apostles, save John, Andrew suffered martyrdom for his witness to the Truth.
St. Paul reminds us that our vocation is not to persuade others into believing the truth by means of worldly wisdom or fancy philosophy. Our vocation is to preach the truth, to preach Christ crucified. This is good news for us because we do not need to be glitzy with our lives or our witness. We don’t have to do the miraculous, nor do we have to outwit the worldly wise.
We need only to lead others to Jesus by announcing his presence and saying, “Come and see. Listen to him,” just as St. Andrew did.
“There are three requisites for perfect prayer. First, when at prayer close your senses and concentrate with all your being, body and soul, and calmly dwell with sorrow and contrition on all your weaknesses past, present and future.” -St. Bonaventure, OFM
St. Augustine has the last words for reflection in the liturgical year which ends tonight at sundown. In today’s Office of Readings, he concludes his discourse with the words, “Sing and walk.”
We sing alleluia (praise God) in this life with a certain amount of anxiety so as to be able to sing alleluia one day in heaven with complete security and peace.
As Augustine said, “O happy is the alleluia sung in heaven! O alleluia of peace and security! There no one will be an enemy, there we will never lose any friend. There the praises of God will resound. Certainly, they resound here on earth too. Here though with anxiousness, while up there in tranquility. Here we sing as dying ones, there as immortals. Here in hope, there in reality. Here as exiles and pilgrims, there in our homeland. Here we sing not so much to enjoy repose, as much as to relieve ourselves from fatigue. We sing as travelers. We sing but we walk. Sing to relieve the bitterness of the march. Sing and walk…… If you are moving it is a sign that you are walking, but you must walk in goodness, you must advance in the correct faith, you must progress in holiness. Sing and walk.” –St. Augustine, Discourses, Disc. 256
Augustine was always big on singing. He reminds us to always sing in our lives. The contrast he makes between the singing we do here in our earthly life and the unending singing we will do in heaven is for me a good thing on which to reflect the last few hours of this Church year. God never promises an easy walk; rather he more or less tells us it will be difficult, even bitter and painful. But we sing his praises anyway for we have the gift of faith which helps us make sense of it all and gives meaning and hope to each and every day.
Sing alleluia all you who read this blog. Sing alleluia in hope and anticipation of the glorious rendition the choirs of saints and angels give this song each moment in heaven.
We too are members of the company of hosts who awaits us eagerly, as does our Mother Mary and the Triune God.
“[Christ] knows better than anyone the nature of all things. He know well that violence does not surrender to violence, but to gentleness.” — St. John Chrysostom
Let us pray for peace…
A Happy Thanksgiving to each of you on this day for family and friends. Let us be especially grateful for the many men and women of faith who have gone before us and given of themselves for our benefit.
I extend a special greeting to my good friends Mike and Eileen, Deacon Gordon and Alma, and all my diaconate family in the Winona Diocese. If Deacon Jim from North Dakota sees this, I hope all is well for you!
A diaconal blessing to all.
Today is the memorial of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, all martyrs for the faith during the 19th century in Vietman. There were 117 of them canonized together by Pope John Paul II in 1988. Sixty-four had been beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1900, eight in 1906 and twenty in 1909 by Pope St. Pius X, and twenty-five in 1951 by Pope Pius XII.
In recent days, it has also been publicized that Pope John Paul II would scourge himself occasionally as part of his spiritual discipline. This of course will be completely misunderstood by many and others may hear of this and imprudently and harmfully want to begin doing the same.
What do the two have to do with one another?
Here is my take on it.
I would begin by offering a quote, translated from my Italian text, of a letter written by St. Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, one of the martyrs, who wrote of the tortures endured and witnessed in prison.
“In the midst of these torments, which usually bend and break others, by the grace of God I am full of joy and happiness, because I am not alone, but Christ is with me. He, my teacher, sustains the whole weight of the cross, burdening me but with a little and ultimate part: He himself does battle for me, not just as a spectator of my struggles; He the victor and perfecter of every battle. On his head is the splendid crown of victory, in which the members of his body also share.” (Bold print mine)
I am no mystic, nor am I a spiritual director. Even more so, I have no real idea what is in someone’s mind and heart. But here is my guess. Just as St. Paul Le-Bao-Tinh endured his suffering, so too did John Paul suffer with and in the presence of Christ, bringing him into union with Christ who carried all of the burdens and endured all the torments and rendered joyful the weight of the papacy.
Such extreme self-mortification is not done to create pain. It is not done to beat oneself into conformity. It is not done in self-loathing, nor out of rejection of who one is. It is done, I believe, to allow Jesus Christ to enter our lives and sustain us in the burdens we endure. It is only healthfully done by those select few, and they are very few, whom God calls to unite themselves to him in this manner.
It is a form of martyrdom.
So don’t go out and scourge yourself. St. Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, St. Andrew Dung-Lac and the other Vietnamese martyrs didn’t go out looking for martyrdom. Seeking death for death’s sake, or physical pain for pain’s sake is not spiritually or mentally healthy.
Remember, God does the calling and we do the responding. We discern our call by prayer, and seeking out wise counsel of others to which we listen.
Only when God calls do you respond. Let us pray none of us will have to face the martyrdom of St. Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, St. Andrew Dung-Lac and companions. Let’s hope we are not called to follow Christ as was John Paul II. But let us pray that should the call be ours, we respond.
As you may have already read, a large contingent of Catholic bishops (including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York), evangelical leaders, Orthodox bishops and other religious leaders have signed and promulgated The Manhattan Declaration. It speaks to the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of marriage as a union of one man and one woman, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
The unfortunate effects of poorly formed consciences have led to an upswing of attacks on human life and a truly free human society, a freedom that can come only with a recognition of the common good and by orienting all we do toward that which is knowably good and in accord with objective truths.
So much of our world today bristles at the Church because it dares to proclaim that there are objective truths that are knowable and binding on all of humankind, not just Catholics. Truths that are not the creation of caprice or whim or personal construction, but known by us through full use of our reason and amplified by Divine Revelation.
You can read the Declaration at: http://manhattandeclaration.org
Thanks to parishioner Michelle for renewing my attention to this declaration.
