Quote for the Day

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“It is Jesus you want to see, to gaze upon, to think about deeply and with desire to imitate.” – St. Clare of Assisi

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Pope John Paul I and Pope Francis

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Deacon Bob

pope0263gFinally, someone is recognizing what I and others have been saying since Pope Francis’ election as pope: He resembles Pope John Paul the FIrst (Papa Luciani). I say resembles not so much in his physical appearance – even though both have the smile of God about them – but rather in their emphases and pastoral approaches in their catechesis.

As I said in a post right after Francis’ election, it was my impression when I saw him step out onto the main loggia of St. Peter’s basilica, that I was re-experiencing Luciani’s election way back in August 1978.

John Paul I was quick to win the hearts of so many, as has Francis. John Paul I was expected to usher in a time of reform of the Curia, as has Francis. John Paul I began to emphasize the virtues of faith, hope and charity, virtues exemplified by John Paul II and written about in encylicals by Benedict and now Francis.

I have here a link to the diocesan paper of Green Bay, Wisconsin and an article written about all of this. The article comes via Robert Duncan of the Catholic News Service. It is an interesting read.

Enjoy!

http://www.thecompassnews.org/2013/10/pope-francis-prefigured-discovering-real-john-paul/

Posted in Papa Luciani (Pope John Paul I), Pope Francis, Popes | Comments Off on Pope John Paul I and Pope Francis

“There is a Baptism with which I must be baptized…”

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Today’s Gospel from Luke has Jesus declaring, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” (Lk 12: 49)

One of my theology professors, I so vividly recall, emphasized how difficult it is for us to comprehend the reality of baptism in that we really cannot wrap our minds around the depths to which we as a people had fallen in sin until the death and resurrection of Jesus, nor can we really grasp the heights to which we are now called with Jesus in God.

In baptism, God works a miracle. He takes us and he radically reorients us away from sin and towards Him. It is a radical and complete rending away from an old way of life toward something very new and different. As St. Paul said this morning in our first reading, we no longer are “slaves to sin” but become “slaves of God.” (see Romans 6: 19-23)

The power of baptism is so immense that one is left grasping for an analogy to approximate it. For example, we all know that the earth is rotating on an axis in a certain direction. We don’t feel it but we know it is occurring. God’s miracle in baptism can be likened to God stopping the rotation of the earth and reversing it. Imagine the power and significance of that. Is there any wonder, then, why Jesus said he was in anguish until baptism should be accomplished?

Yes, such a radical and immensely powerful event is often misunderstood or trivialized by many people. We too often see it as a nice ritual, or perhaps as a “christening” but completely miss the reality. The liturgy of baptism is clear, but we miss its significance.

The power of baptism is such that the new direction in which it impels us cannot be easily reversed. Certainly, no earthly power can do so except the human will which, after becoming fully conscious of the gravity of an action and after sufficient reflection, chooses to say “no” to God’s saving action, to God’s baptismal miracle.

May God bring to completion what He has accomplished in us. May we rise to the heights of our call as sons and daughters of God, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus and the power of the Spirit given to us in our baptisms.

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How Well Do You Hear? Remember?

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Deacon Bob

How well do you hear? How long is your memory? No, this isn’t a test for Alzheimer’s. These really are profound spiritual questions that we all would do well to consider.

How well do we hear God’s Word as revealed to us? How attuned are we to the words of the ancient and modern-day prophets who God sends to us regularly? How long do we remember all that God has done for his people, his chosen ones?

Jesus has some very strong words for those who fail to listen and to remember, as we have been hearing in the Gospel readings this past week at Mass. He condemned the Israelites of old for killing the prophets, and then condemned his contemporaries for building monuments to the prophets but forgetting the message, the words that they spoke.

How do we Catholics hear and remember? What is the primary way of doing so? It is through gathering as a parish for Sunday Mass. It is there that we hear proclaimed God’s Word, where we recall all that God has done for us as a people, where we remember the sacrifice that won for us new life. Yes, the Church is very much aware that unless we gather as a people to hear and remember, we will lose our faith. That is why the Church insists that we gather as a parish each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation to worship at Mass.

Let us always have ears open to the Word of God in our lives. Let us always have hearts that are present to God as He is present to us. Let us never forget that God sent His only Son into the world to die, so we might live, and have the fullness of life.

Posted in General Interest, Saints and Prophets, Scripture | 1 Comment

Pope Francis and the Devil

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Deacon Bob

One of the things many people have noticed about Pope Francis right from the start is his reference to Satan. Many commentators have said this is a reflection of his Jesuit spirituality, and the charism of discernment often seen with the Jesuits. After all, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, is noted for discernment in the  spiritual life, and his Ignatian spirituality is often at the core of solid spiritual direction.

I ran across this video clip in which is discussed Francis’ spirituality and how the devil factors in. Look and learn!

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Mary Unties the Knots of Sin

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Our Holy Father offered a beautiful homily a couple days ago when, in St. Peter’s Square he venerated our Lady in an impressive yet simple manner, accompanied by thousands of people gathered with him. In this homily (see below) he describes Mary as untying the knots of sin in the world and in our lives.

Pope Francis’ devotion to the Virgin Mary is unmistakable. His homily is reproduced below. Source:  http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2013/10/12/0656/01479.html )

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,This event of the Year of Faith is devoted to Mary, the Mother of Christ and the Mother of the Church, our Mother. The statue of Our Lady which has come from Fatima helps us to feel her presence in our midst. It is a fact: Mary always brings us to Jesus. She is a woman of faith, a true believer. But we can ask: What was Mary’s faith like?

1. The first aspect of her faith is this: Mary’s faith unties the knot of sin (cf. Lumen Gentium, 56). What does that mean? The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council took up a phrase of Saint Irenaeus, who states that “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary; what the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith” (Adversus Haereses, III, 22, 4).

The “knot” of disobedience, the “knot” of unbelief. When children disobey their parents, we can say that a little “knot” is created. This happens if the child acts with an awareness of what he or she is doing, especially if there is a lie involved. At that moment, they break trust with their parents. You know how frequently this happens! Then the relationship with their parents needs to be purified of this fault; the child has to ask forgiveness so that harmony and trust can be restored. Something of the same sort happens in our relationship with God. When we do not listen to him, when we do not follow his will, we do concrete things that demonstrate our lack of trust in him – for that is what sin is – and a kind of knot is created deep within us. These knots take away our peace and serenity. They are dangerous, since many knots can form a tangle which gets more and more painful and difficult to undo.

But we know one thing: nothing is impossible for God’s mercy! Even the most tangled knots are loosened by his grace. And Mary, whose “yes” opened the door for God to undo the knot of the ancient disobedience, is the Mother who patiently and lovingly brings us to God, so that he can untangle the knots of our soul by his fatherly mercy. We all have some of these knots and we can ask in our heart of hearts: What are the knots in my life? “Father, my knots cannot be undone!” It is a mistake to say anything of the sort! All the knots of our heart, every knot of our conscience, can be undone. Do I ask Mary to help me trust in God’s mercy, to undo those knots, to change? She, as a woman of faith, will surely tell you: “Get up, go to the Lord: he understands you”. And she leads us by the hand as a Mother, our Mother, to the embrace of our Father, the Father of mercies.

2. A second aspect is that Mary’s faith gave human flesh to Jesus. As the Council says: “Through her faith and obedience, she gave birth on earth to the very Son of the Father, without knowing man but by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit” (Lumen Gentium, 63). This was a point on which the Fathers of the Church greatly insisted: Mary first conceived Jesus in faith and then in the flesh, when she said “yes” to the message God gave her through the angel. What does this mean? It means that God did not want to become man by bypassing our freedom; he wanted to pass through Mary’s free assent, through her “yes”. He asked her: “Are you prepared to do this?” And she replied: “Yes”.

But what took place most singularly in the Virgin Mary also takes place within us, spiritually, when we receive the word of God with a good and sincere heart and put it into practice. It is as if God takes flesh within us; he comes to dwell in us, for he dwells in all who love him and keep his word. It is not easy to understand this, but really, it is easy to feel it in our heart.

Do we think that Jesus’ incarnation is simply a past event which has nothing to do with us personally? Believing in Jesus means giving him our flesh with the humility and courage of Mary, so that he can continue to dwell in our midst. It means giving him our hands, to caress the little ones and the poor; our feet, to go forth and meet our brothers and sisters; our arms, to hold up the weak and to work in the Lord’s vineyard, our minds, to think and act in the light of the Gospel; and especially to offer our hearts to love and to make choices in accordance with God’s will. All this happens thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit. And in this way we become instruments in God’s hands, so that Jesus can act in the world through us.

3. The third aspect is Mary’s faith as a journey. The Council says that Mary “advanced in her pilgrimage of faith” (ibid., 58). In this way she precedes us on this pilgrimage, she accompanies and sustains us.

How was Mary’s faith a journey? In the sense that her entire life was to follow her Son: he – Jesus – is the way, he is the path! To press forward in faith, to advance in the spiritual pilgrimage which is faith, is nothing other than to follow Jesus; to listen to him and be guided by his words; to see how he acts and to follow in his footsteps; to have his same sentiments. And what are these sentiments of Jesus? Humility, mercy, closeness to others, but also a firm rejection of hypocrisy, duplicity and idolatry. The way of Jesus is the way of a love which is faithful to the end, even unto sacrificing one’s life; it is the way of the cross. The journey of faith thus passes through the cross. Mary understood this from the beginning, when Herod sought to kill the newborn Jesus. But then this experience of the cross became deeper when Jesus was rejected. Mary was always with Jesus, she followed Jesus in the midst of the crowds and she heard all the gossip and the nastiness of those who opposed the Lord. And she carried this cross! Mary’s faith encountered misunderstanding and contempt. When Jesus’ “hour” came, the hour of his passion, when Mary’s faith was a little flame burning in the night, a little light flickering in the darkness. Through the night of Holy Saturday, Mary kept watch. Her flame, small but bright, remained burning until the dawn of the resurrection. And when she received word that the tomb was empty, her heart was filled with the joy of faith: Christian faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Faith always brings us to joy, and Mary is the Mother of joy! May she teach us to take the path of joy, to experience this joy! That was the high point – this joy, this meeting of Jesus and Mary, and we can imagine what it was like. Their meeting was the high point of Mary’s journey of faith, and that of the whole Church. What is our faith like? Like Mary, do we keep it burning even at times of difficulty, in moments of darkness? Do I feel the joy of faith?

This evening, Mother, we thank you for our faith, the faith of a strong and humble woman; we renew our entrustment to you, Mother of our faith. Amen.
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Quote for the Day

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“When a man trains himself to acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good things come that he does this. The will is what a man has as his unique possession.” — St. Joseph of Cupertino, OFM Cap.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for 28th Sunday or Ordinary Time, Cycle C – 2013

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for this weekend. God bless!

Audio: 

Text:

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle C

October 12/13, 2013

2 Kings 5: 14-17; 2 Tim 2: 8-13; Luke 17: 11-19

 

Today we hear of gratitude in the Gospel story of the healing of the ten lepers, and in the story of the healing of Namaan, the Syrian in the first reading.

Gratitude….. Have you ever been healed from a serious physical illness? Heart disease? Cancer? High blood pressure? Infections? Have you ever been healed from a psychological problem, like depression or anxiety? Have you ever been freed from an addiction like alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, pornography? Have you ever been freed from a spiritual disease like habitual lying, stinginess, and pride? I will bet there is someone here today who has experienced such healing. If there is one thing that will spark gratitude in someone, it is usually being healed from illness.

If you have been healed, how long did your gratitude last?  How did you express it? How did it take form and shape? How long did you remember what God had done for you?

Naaman the Syrian in the first reading remembered and was grateful so he took a few mule loads of dirt back home with him. He wanted to build an altar to God on soil from Israel, so he would never forget what God had done for him.

Yes, remembrance and gratitude are always intertwined, aren’t they? We cannot be grateful if we forget and how quickly we forget! We are a people who forget the past. But the past is important, recalling what God has done for us is important, if we are to be grateful.  If we suppress our memories, if we downplay history, especially salvation history i.e., if we forget the many ways  God has worked in our lives, then we become ungrateful; we end up thinking that we are the ones to whom gratitude is owed, not God. We close in on ourselves and we exclude God from our lives.

We must remember! Our gratitude needs to be sustained by our memories, so our memories must endure!

How do we as Catholics remember and give thanks? I’d like you to think about it for just a second. I’ll give you a couple of seconds to come up with an answer. You don’t have to answer out loud…… Okay, the primary way of remembering and giving thanks is celebrating the Eucharist as a parish. Nod your heads vigorously if you got it right! Eucharist means “give thanks” in Greek.  The Eucharist is both an act of remembrance and an act of gratitude. We recall what God has done for us in our lives and we say thank you to him.

Thank you for saving my life!

Thank you for forgiving my sins!

Thank you for not abandoning me!

Thank you for healing me!

Thank you for making me you adopted son or daughter!

The Sunday Eucharist should be the beginning of our prayer life for the week and the place at the end of the week we give our entire lives to God in one great prayer of thanksgiving. That is why coming to Mass every Sunday is not a suggestion but an obligation for all Catholics. It is something that is that important. The Church knows that if don’t gather together to remember and give thanks, we will forget what God has done and we will lose our faith.

One of the most impressive things I saw in Rome when I lived and studied there was the room in the catacomb of St. Priscilla where there is a stone altar on which the Eucharist was celebrated by early Christians during the first 100 years of the Christianity. I remember standing there as the priest said Mass and thinking that I was standing on the exact same spot some Christian once stood as he or she attended Mass. I thought then that even in the midst of persecution, martyrdom and fear, they remembered, they came together, and they gave thanks. They had Eucharist.

Did you know that one of the fruits of gathering for the Sunday Eucharist and receiving Holy Communion in a state of grace can be healing? A healing of mind and heart, a healing of the effects of sin? Did you know that God offers us healing and forgiveness at each and every Eucharist? That the Eucharist is one great prayer of thanksgiving, the most powerful prayer of thanksgiving that exists?

Remember this: God sent his only Son into the world that we may have life and have it to the full. Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins and rose from the dead to lead us back to the Father in heaven. God loves you that much! He did not spare in only Son. And now the Father and the Son sends forth into your life the gift of the Holy Spirit to be with you and guide you wherever you may be.

Remember, and give thanks always!

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Simplicity and Perseverance in Prayer

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Today’s Gospel, as we all heard at Mass this morning, was taken from Luke. We heard of the man who at night pounds on the door of his friend, asking for some bread to feed an unexpected guest, and his friend’s rebuff. Jesus then recites that famous verse, “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” (Lk 11: 5-13)

Persistence in prayer coupled with simplicity in our pleading…. two pillars of the spiritual life in many ways.

We tend to forget that God already knows our needs; not that we shouldn’t articulate them when we are at prayer, but that he already knows. As Jesus says to us today, he will give us nothing less than the Holy Spirit when we ask, seek and knock at the door. He cannot be outdone in generosity, so he gives us himself whenever we pray. Our reception by God has little to do with our ability to explain things to him; thus a lot of words are unnecessary.

We hear in other places in the Gospels that we are not to rattle on “like the pagans” in our prayer. Our Holy Father Pope Francis recently reminded us of this also. I think these are reminders to us that we need not convince God of our need, or identify for him what those needs are for to do so is an effort to extract from God what he is more than willing to give. Extraction is not prayer. Being at the feet of God in a position of submission and recognition is.

Perseverance in prayer, I believe, requires simplicity. We must use very few words. Might I suggest to all of you that your personal prayer life include these three words, “Lord, help me!” or perhaps these two words, “Jesus, come!”

Lord, help us! Jesus, come!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“Let us love our most loving Father in heaven with the greatest of love and let our obedience be the proof of our perfect love which we put into practice especially when we are asked to give up our own will.” –St. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Conv.

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Franciscan Peace

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Deacon Bob

I am not a Franciscan; I have never been formed in Franciscan spirituality. My best friend, though, is a secular Franciscan and I was privileged to be present the day he made his promises several years ago. Because I am not steeped in Francis, I defer to those who are whenever I speak or write about il poverello as they call him in Italy.

Having said that, I watched via YouTube a lengthy video of the Pope’s pilgrimage to Assisi last Friday. It was in Italian, so I had to translate as he spoke, which is always a challenge for me. Thankfully, since Italian is his second language, it is much easier than it would have been if he were a native speaker.  I would like to transcribe excerpts for you below his homily at the Mass he celebrated in St. Francis Square. (By the way, this is the official Vatican translation of the original Italian.) To read the entire homily, log on to: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20131004_omelia-visita-assisi_en.html

What does Saint Francis’s witness tell us today? What does he have to say to us, not merely with words – that is easy enough – but by his life?

The first thing he tells us is this: that being a Christian means having a living relationship with the person of Jesus; it means putting on Christ, being conformed to him.

Where did Francis’s journey to Christ begin? It began with the gaze of the crucified Jesus…… The cross does not speak to us about defeat and failure; paradoxically, it speaks to us about a death which is life, a death which gives life, for it speaks to us of love,….. When we let the crucified Jesus gaze upon us, we are re-created, we become “a new creation”. Everything else starts with this: the experience of transforming grace, the experience of being loved for no merits of our own, in spite of our being sinners. That is why Saint Francis could say with Saint Paul: “Far be it for me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).

We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Teach us to remain before the cross, to let the crucified Christ gaze upon us, to let ourselves be forgiven, and recreated by his love……

This is the second witness that Francis gives us: that everyone who follows Christ receives true peace, the peace that Christ alone can give, a peace which the world cannot give…… Franciscan peace is not something saccharine. Hardly! That is not the real Saint Francis! Nor is it a kind of pantheistic harmony with forces of the cosmos… That is not Franciscan either! It is not Franciscan, but a notion that some people have invented! The peace of Saint Francis is the peace of Christ, and it is found by those who “take up” their “yoke”, namely, Christ’s commandment: Love one another as I have loved you (cf. Jn 13:34; 15:12). This yoke cannot be borne with arrogance, presumption or pride, but only with meekness and humbleness of heart….

Saint Francis of Assisi bears witness to the need to respect all that God has created and as he created it, without manipulating and destroying creation; rather to help it grow, to become more beautiful and more like what God created it to be. And above all, Saint Francis witnesses to respect for everyone, he testifies that each of us is called to protect our neighbour, that the human person is at the centre of creation, at the place where God….Harmony and peace! Francis was a man of harmony and peace. From this City of Peace, I repeat with all the strength and the meekness of love: Let us respect creation, let us not be instruments of destruction! Let us respect each human being. May there be an end to armed conflicts which cover the earth with blood; may the clash of arms be silenced; and everywhere may hatred yield to love, injury to pardon, and discord to unity. Let us listen to the cry of all those who are weeping, who are suffering and who are dying because of violence, terrorism or war, in the Holy Land, so dear to Saint Francis, in Syria, throughout the Middle East and everywhere in the world…..

Crucified yet alive; peace and respect. St. Francis gazed on the crucified yet living Jesus, to whom he gave his all and became poor to the world, in whom he found his peace, and through whom he brought peace and harmony to the world around him.

I truly hope all men and women, consecrated by vows to the Franciscan way of life, may find renewal through the ministry of Pope Francis. In his homily, he emphasized that to be a Christian is first of all to “put on Christ” and to live in relationship with him. We are Christocentric, not mondocentric (I just made up that word… what I mean is “world-centered.”) It is in the life of St. Francis that we find a man radically centered on Jesus Christ and from that centeredness he found peace, harmony, joy, and respect for all of God’s creatures.

Let us imitate Il Poverello in the lives we lead in this world so hungry for his example.

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Attention Deacons! The Church Must “Si Spoglia” Her Riches

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Pope Francis will be making a day-long pilgrimage to Assisi tomorrow in honor of St. Francis, who feast day is October 4. In comments he has made in the past week, he said the Church needs to shed (si spoglia) her riches.

St. Francis, after his conversion stood in the town square and literally shed all his clothing in an act of utter poverty and humility. He did that after having given away all his material possessions.

Our Holy Father has continually roused all of us who are in Holy Orders (deacons, priests and bishops) out of our complacency and is calling us to go out to those on the periphery of the Church to encounter them and bring them home. He has made comments such as we must carry the smell of the poor on our clothing and our bodies by becoming that close to them in their need. He has called us to shed anything and everything that may hinder us from clothing ourselves with Jesus and his Gospel which must be preached to the entire world. He has reminded us that the Second Vatican Council called for dialogue with the world so as to transform that world.

If I may be so bold, I will say that Francis has been living out the  life of a deacon. Even though the Holy Father has not mentioned deacons in his talks (at least as far as I know) he is modeling for all deacons what we are to do and look like.

We are sent forth to bear witness to the presence of Jesus and to proclaim the Gospel. We are to do so without any trappings of this world that might hinder us.

It seems that in the upcoming weeks and months we need to be open to our Holy Father’s lead. He is leading us to the periphery, and for some this is a bit frightening.

Remember, Francis is Peter. Francis is the Rock.

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Quote for the Day

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“I believe very firmly that you know well 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

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I Scarcely Know Where to Begin….

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Deacon Bob

There is so much happening that I scarcely know where to begin. I am referencing what is occurring in the Church, especially with the continued press that the Holy Father has been given and for which he has been asking.

Coming on the heels of a major interview with the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, Pope Francis has given another major Italian news source an extensive interview (La Repubblica). Take a look at the link, in English. (Please be advised: The interview was conducted in Italian and in my opinion is poorly translated into English. Thus, some of the comments they report the Pope made I would have translated differently with a significant meaning change. Also, remember the context of this interview, i.e., with a non-believing Catholic.)

Today, the Pope has begun meetings with the eight cardinals he has appointed to a commission to assist him in governance of the universal Church. This group, which some are calling the G-8, is undertaking a study of major reforms that may be upcoming in the Roman Curia as well as in how the Church today approaches her ministry.

I think it is always difficult to know what all this will look like when completed, so I will not speculate like many are now doing, predicting changes in major issues that have been divisive in the past. We all indeed may be in for surprises, but I will let Francis and events speak for themselves. I do think though that Francis is letting everyone know that he intends to bring about change, and that he is pope, exercising his freedom and his authority as pope.

Stay tuned and keep praying.

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“And he kept trying to see him.”

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Today’s Gospel passage from Luke is about how perplexed Herod became about the identity of Jesus. We hear of people telling him that Elijah has arisen, or the great prophet has come back. He immediately thought about John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded. He was confused, yet interested. He couldn’t see Jesus, but as the passage ends, “And he kept trying to see him.”

You have to ask, “What kept him from seeing Jesus?”

Like so many of us, the veil that covered his eyes was composed of the effects of his sin. It was composed of unneeded preoccupation with things of this world. It was composed of a heart that had not been purified, for we hear in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.”

Like Herod, we too keep trying to see Jesus, and we must ask ourselves, “What blinds me to his presence? He is here, right now, yet I so often do not recognize him.”

Let us rid ourselves from whatever obscures our vision of God. Is this not, ultimately, what life is all about? It is only with the eye of faith that we see the Lord Jesus, and believe me, you are going to find him, see him, touch him and hear from him in the lives of the poor, in the words of Scripture, in the teachings of the Church, and in clinging to the deposit of faith handed on to us by those who have gone before us.

God is never stingy in his grace and his assistance. He really wants us to see Him, and to see Him clearly and for all eternity.

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