Catholic Faith and Reflections

“Prayer is the cup for drinking the grace of the Holy Spirit from the abundant fountain of delight, the Blessed Trinity.” — St. Bonaventure

“Maybe the virtue we should pray for isn’t so much courage but integrity, so that we say what we mean and we mean what we say and we live what we say. I hope God gives me that grace, and I hope He gives it to everyone.” — Archbishop Charles Chaput

“It is obedience, and only obedience, which clearly shows us God’s will.” — St. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Conv.

“Thanks be to God for vocation — and for the strength to follow the call, at least imperfectly.” –Solanus Casey, OFM Cap.

I may be a bit biased as you might imagine since I was a friend of Bishop Tony Taylor back in the late 1970s when we studied and worked together in Rome, but I find his homily of August 15 at St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his letter the day prior, fitting immediate responses to the alleged sexual contact a priest serving in the Little Rock diocese had with an adult male.

You can read the Bishop’s letter and find a link to his homily at: www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=1824#sidebar

God bless all those affected.

Today’s Office of Readings has a selection from St. John Chrysostom and his homily on the Gospel according to Matthew.  He writes:

“Conversion by means of your ministry may be possible to others who are in error, but if you fall you will sweep away into ruin all these. The more important the duties that have been given to you, the more effort they require of you.” 

The director of the diaconate for our diocese reminded the deacons and candidates that we aren’t ordained to hide from the people. We are to be seen. St. John is getting at this point in his homily when he quotes Matthew’s gospel, “You are the light of the world; you are the salt of the earth.  Don’t light a lamp and hide it.”

All to the point that unless we have a fire burning in our hearts for the Lord, unless we are faithful to our relationship with God in prayer, we risk going flat in flavor and being dimly lit.  We risk sweeping away with us those to whom we are called to serve and lead.

All the more reason to contemplate the Icon of Jesus the Servant throughout our day.

Cardinal Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy, wrote a letter to all deacons on the feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. He calls us to sanctity through rigorous prayer, especially Lectio Divina, and to renewed involvement with the poor.

The Synod on the Word of God was celebrated last October and prompts this letter, perhaps.

The Cardinal is pushing for greater and deeper preparation of deacons in Scriptural studies and in a spirituality rooted in Scripture and carried out in service to the poor.  He calls upon the early deacons as examples for contemporary deacons. This is refreshing for me, as I have always thought that we cannot come to a mature and contemporary theology of the diaconate, nor a fully diaconal spirituality, without grounding in our roots, i.e., scripture, tradition and the diaconate as lived out in the early decades/centuries of the Church.

Read the letter in its entirety at:  www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2009-08/13-13/10agosto2009_en.html

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a website on health care reform.  Looks like a great resource for anyone wanting to understand where the American Church is on the rather loud social and political debate that is occurring throughout our country.

Log on to:  www.usccb.org/healthcare

How this all falls out will have a great impact on every citizen. 

How to craft a system where the dignity of every human being from conception to natural death is respected along with the  moral right to essential care for one’s health is a major political, economic and moral issue.

Let’s pray hard we get it right.

The kindness of the elderly can be humbling. With age and infirmity will come for some a softening of attitude, a benevolence that was in times past obscured by both the habits of personality and the prejudices of others.

An older sick man can break through the nonsense of life and speak to the heart.

Such a person will leave you remorseful at times for old misperceptions too long held, remorseful for opportunities lost that could have led to deep understanding, truth and love.  Such a person resorts to the truth when he speaks, and the truth has a way of liberating anyone who speaks it or who opens his ears to hear it.

Such a person leaves one grateful for life, love and relationship.

I believe you know of what I am speaking if you have had this experience: the kindness of truth from the elderly and frail among us.  

They are Jesus.

“When a stranger shows up, we should think, ‘That’s our boss. What does the boss need?'” — William Short, OFM

“The cross symbolizes the greatest event in human history.” — Blessed Pope John XXIII

I’d like to refer you to a letter my friend Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock sent to all the Arkansan congressmen.  In it, he refers to health care as, “…not a privilege, but a right.”  He also states there must be, “… a requirement to protect the life and dignity of every person.”  He later writes, “Health care is a fundamental issue of human life and dignity.  Health care is a critical component of the Catholic Church’s ministry.” He calls for a “truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity; access for all with a special concern for the poor and inclusion of immigrants.”

Log on to:  www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=1813  to read his letter.

What do you think?

“Let us begin to do good, for as yet we have done little.” — St. Francis of Assissi

St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians has a good reminder for all preachers of the word, especially deacons, I think.

“In fact, we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, for we are your servants for the love of Jesus.”  2nd Corinthians 4:5

I think there is a temptation at times for us to preach “ourselves” and not Jesus Christ, the Word of Truth. Without the Truth, who is Jesus, people really aren’t free to love as they ought. They remain “enslaved” by the law, as Paul says.

May we preach only Jesus by our words and actions.

The Office of Readings for today continues our reading from the Letter of Barnabas.  It is a passage in which he describes “The Way of Light.”

There is a pro-life message contained within it.

“You will love your neighbor more that your own life. You will not procure an abortion and you will not kill a baby after its birth.” (Letter of Barnabas, Cap. 19;  Funk, 1, 53-57)

The early Christians were faced with a anti-life culture too.  They eventually changed it.  We now are facing similar circumstances. Hopefully, our love for others will bring back a culture of life……