Catholic Faith and Reflections | Faith Seeking Understanding

Quote for the Day

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Deacon Bob

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

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33 Years Ago Today – Papa Luciani and Unity in the Church

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Deacon Bob

On this day, 33 years ago, Pope John Paul I spoke to the cardinals who had elected him. It took place in the Consistory Hall on a Wednesday.

He spoke rather eloquently about Church unity, and his commitment to fostering it.

Here is an excerpt:

This unity transcends space, ignores racial difference and enriches us with the true values present in diverse cultures. Though peoples differ in geographical location, in language and mentality, through this one communion, they become a single great family. How could one but feel a wave of a brightening hope in face of the marvelous spectacle your presence offers to a reflective spirit? ….

Your presence places before us an eloquent image of the Church of Christ….. It is for this unity that we know we have been established both as a sign and as an instrument (cf. Lumen Gentium n. 8, 32). It is our goal to dedicate our total energy to the defence of this unity and indeed its increase. … We would only wish to reconfirm in this moment together with you all, the commitment of our total availability to the guidance of the Spirit for the good of the Church, It was this that each of you promised on the day of your elevation to the Cardinalate, to serve “even to the shedding of blood.” (Bold print mine.)

Luciani was to dedicate his “total energy” to defending the unity of the Church. I think he did just that, spending himself completely in the span of a month.

He indeed brought the Church together in marvelous fashion.

Papa Luciani, pray for us.

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Quote for the Day

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Deacon Bob

“The Lord called me to himself with a most tender love, and with an infinite charity he led and directed me along the path of my life.” — Blessed Ludovico of Casoria, OFM

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Church of the Week

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Deacon Bob

St. Patrick Catholic Church

McHenry, Illinois

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33 Years Ago Today… John Paul I

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Deacon Bob

Thirty-three years ago today, Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, was elected pope and took the name John Paul I. His papacy lasted 33 days, but his effect will continue for years.

L’Osservatore Romano (www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/text.html) had a nice little article about him yesterday. If you read Italian, take a look. In the article, there is a reference to a similarity between Luciani and St. Pope Pius X. This is something I have briefly read about in the past, and would be interested in understanding even more in the future.

As so many of you know, I have fond memories of Luciani, especially his election and his installation Mass. I was privileged to have been able to approach him closely, and serve him liturgically.

Let us all pray that the sanctity of Pope John Paul I will be known more widely, and his cause for canonization be rapidly forwarded.

I’d like to conclude with a quote from yesterday’s article in the L’Osservatore Romano, written by Vincenzo Bertolone (my translation from the Italian):

Thus, the visible friendliness of Albino Luciani was governed by his desire to support, encourage and value his listener. It is not to be forgotten that he may have been, and is remembered as, a great catechist. Certainly, one is inspired by great examples, but of him one is moved to love by his simplicity, by his “essentiality”, both of which taken together are the handmaids of truth.

Pope John Paul I, Servant of the servants of God, Vicar of Christ, pray for us!

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Cardinal John Chrysostom Korec

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Deacon Bob

I read yesterday with interest an article in L’Osservatore Romano (www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/text.html) about Cardinal John Chrysostom Korec from the Czech Republic who celebrated the 6o anniversary of his ordination to the episcopacy. At the time, he was the youngest bishop in the world at age 26.

The article is in Italian, so I present below my translation in English.

The evening of August 24, 1951, in an apartment in Bratislavia, a 26 year old Slovak Jesuit by the name of John Chrysostom Korec, today a cardinal, became the youngest bishop in the world. It was a clandestine ordination, “done in haste,” he remembers, with the fear that the police would intervene suddenly. As with the many others, barely a year prior, he had secretly become a priest.

Unique was his diocese for the first nine years of his episcopacy: a factory where he worked as a laborer and then as a watchman at night. Without forgetting he was a bishop. “A son of a worker, raised in a poor family,” Korec was certainly not afraid. In 1960, however, he changed “dioceses.” He was arrested and tried, sentenced to 12 years in prison, kept in a monastery that had been turned into a prison. There he found six bishops and 200 priests. For two years he was unable to say Mass and he survived in isolation thanks to a method of prayer he formed based on spiritual exercises. In 1968, a burst of freedom in the spring, at Prague, opened to him the doors of the prison. He worked cleaning the public gardens and later unloading barrels of asphalt in a factory. For the first time in his life, he celebrated Mass in public. He obtained a passport to travel to Rome in 1969 where he met Pope Paul VI who gave him the episcopal symbols of office. “A moving encounter,” he recalls. “Paul VI wanted me to tell him my entire story. He was moved to tears when I told him that even in prison one could do good, and how young criminals were converted thanks to our friendships. At the end of the audience, he gave me his ring, his pectoral cross and two miters he wore when he was archbishop of Milan.”

He also visited the catacombs of St. Calistus. “I was profoundly struck by that experience that enriched me spiritually. Evidently,” he recalled with humor that has never left him, “the communists knew and decided to be good to me and make me relive the experience of living in the catacombs…” In fact, having returned to his country, they revoked his parole and he finished his sentence behind bars for four more years. In effect, his was an episcopal mission lived in prisons and in factories. But this was of no little importance. Here is something international newspapers wrote in 1976, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his episcopal ordination: “There is a man from Bratislavia who creates fear for the atheistic Czechoslovakians. His name is John Korec and he works as a laborer in a large factory. While suffering from bronchial asthma, he is forced to do heavy work… loading and unloading all day large barrels of asphalt. When his strength leaves him, he cannot expect any compassion because he is a lower class citizen. On his papers there is stamped his sentence, “Traitor of the Country.”

Korec went into retirement in 1984 after working also as a maintenance man for an elevator. His modest apartment in Petrazlka, in the industrial zone surrounding Prague, he has become one of the two points of reference for the survival of Christian life in Slovakia. …. Only in 1989 was he able to wear the episcopal symbols given to him by Paul VI. John Paul II nominated him bishop of Nitra, a very ancient diocese in central Europe… and in 1991 made him a cardinal. In 1998, he called him to the Vatican to preach the Lenten exercises. Three times, in 1990, 1995 and 2003, he met John Paul II in Slovakia. “Without my ties to the Holy Father, he knows, we would not have been able to resist persecution.”……

An amazing story of our own time.

Happy anniversary, Cardianl Korec!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Deacon Bob

“My only concern is to carry out what God wants of me. In a word, I desire to be as perfect a likeness of my Lord Jesus Christ as I possibly can.” — Blessed Didacus Joseph of Cadiz, OFM Cap.

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Anniversary of Ordination

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Deacon Bob

Today, the memorial of the Queenship of Mary, is the second anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate. To all my classmates I extend my best wishes!

Seems like yesterday, but what a wonderful couple of years it has been!

Ad multos annos, diaconi fratri!

Posted in Deacons | 1 Comment

Another Wedding Story (Mis-story)

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Deacon Bob

Deacon Greg over at Deacon’s Bench (see link Deacon Greg Kandra at lower right) posted yesterday a story of a wedding that occurred in his parish. A great story, perhaps familiar to a lot of deacons… perhaps a “mis-story” of what a wedding is all about.

He comments that “the crisis in Catholic marriage starts with bad Catholic weddings.”

I think he has a partial point.

I have always wondered why it is we demand almost a year to plan and finance a wedding ceremony whereas we are able to plan a funeral in a matter of a few days. With a funeral people come, are fed well, the liturgy is meaningful and family/love is celebrated in a special way.

I know it is impossible, but wouldn’t it be great if somehow there could be a prohibition against planning the wedding ceremony until one month before the day. Mind you, I said the wedding ceremony, not the marriage. We spend our entire lives preparing for our death. Catholic marriages need at least two years of preparation… I mean preparation of the relationship and a deepening of the understanding of the sacramentality of the relationship.

The wedding day itself can be planned in a few days.

I know, I know…… never will happen you are saying, but I ask, “Why not?” Any answers?

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Meet the 34th Doctor of the Church

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Deacon Bob

Yesterday, Pope Benedict declared St. John of Avila a doctor of the Church, making him the 34 saint with that honor. The Holy Father made the announcement at the conclusion of a special World Youth Day Mass for seminarians at Madrid’s Cathedral of the Almudena.

St. John of Avila was born in 1500 about 155 miles south of Madrid, Spain. He was a Christian, but was of Jewish descent. He became a priest and a great preacher, author and mystic whose writings influenced St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis Borgia. His best known work was Audi Fili which was a tract on Christian perfection.

St. John of Avila was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970, and his feast day is May 10.

The title of “Doctor of the Church” is given to individuals whose writings have universal importance to the Church.

The last saint to be given that title was St. Theresa of Lisieux. Pope John Paul II honored her in August 1997, also during a World Youth Day.

A report on this is found at: Catholic News Agency.

By the way, I learned that all the seminarians from the diocese of Winona are attending the World Youth Day in Madrid. May God bless them, and may the deeply appreciate the experience they have been given.

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Church of the Week

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Deacon Bob

St. Mary Church

McHenry, Illinois

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The Many Faces of Poverty

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Deacon Bob

I was thinking today of poverty as I was painting my house. One brush stroke after another, hours on end. I’ve been at it all week, all day. Soon I will be finished.

We tend to think of poverty as the lack of resources, especially material or financial one. To be honest, I have never seriously lacked what I have needed in these areas even though I have never been nor will I ever be “rich” in those ways. It just isn’t in the cards for me given my vocations and my value system. But I think poverty is something quite different than that for many of us.

Johannes Metz’s book, Poverty of Spirit, of which I have referenced in the past, was a real eye opener for me many years ago when Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego sent it to me. He was bishop of Duluth, Minnesota at the time. Metz speaks of the different faces of poverty, including the poverty of provisionality and the poverty of finiteness.

Provisionality and finiteness….. all things have a certain limitation or provision to which they are subjected. Even our duties and obligations, as sacred and imperative as they may be, they too expose us to the poverty within us and thus our radical dependency upon God.

Any of us who have promised to pray faithfully the Liturgy of the Hours understand this well. Every day, over and over again, we pray the psalms, read the readings, and make the petitions for ourselves and for all the Church. Every day without exception. A serious obligation; a repetitive action that will need doing again.

Provisional and finite….. exposing us to our poverty as human and our dependence on the benevolence of God. The psalms are all about this.

The painting of a house (which will need redoing in 10 years), the maintenance of a vehicle, the instruction and discipline of a student… gosh, even eating and sleeping…. all speak of the finiteness of life and how provisional much of life is. Qoheleth spoke well in Ecclesiastes when he bemoaned, “Vanities of vanities! All things are vanity!”

The difference between Qoheleth and we Christians is we have no need to moan about this for it has all been redeemed, for we know that God breaks through time and place and enters our world and takes on our poverty in all its forms, save sin. As Christians, we find joy in the provisional and the finite. St. Terese of Liseaux, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Venerable Solanus Casey, OFM all have live this poverty to the full, with joy.

It is not beyond us to do the same. For heaven’s sake, it is our calling!

Posted in Spirituality, Virtues | 1 Comment

What Constitutes Good Preaching?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Deacon Bob

I read with interest today a report from The Catholic News Service that Fr. Roy Shelly and Deborah Wilhelm of the Diocese of Monterey, California said that a good homily should be only 6-8 minutes in length on Sundays and 3-5 minutes on a weekday. They imply, it seems, that one mark of poor preaching is length, i.e., beyond these time limits. The article seems to suggest that the quality and “spiritual depth” of what the homilist offers will be compromised by a lengthier homily.

I am all for getting to the point quickly, and for landing the homily in a timely fashion, but I think they are missing the point if they emphasize length of time.

I have heard absolutely riveting homilies that were only one minute in length. I have heard equally inspiring homilies that held me attentive for 15-20 minutes.

The makings of a good homily include the homilist “getting out of the way” and speaking from conviction and the heart of Jesus. You can tell if a homilist is advancing himself or the Gospel. It is almost immediately evident when what is preached comes from conviction and heart. Faith expressed with vigor and authenticity of life is what keeps one attentive.

In other words, a man with lukewarm faith and a tepid heart will make a poor homilist. A man who speaks the truth from the heart will inspire others and will break open our hearts to the message of the Gospel.

In some sense, this cannot be taught really. Public speaking can, and so too interpersonal relations. Both are important, and need to be part of formation programs, But being a good homilist is ultimately a gift from God. Not everyone has that gift, even if all deacons and priest have that obligation.

I would suggest as an alternative to the recommendations of Fr. Shelly and Ms. Wilhelm that for a Sunday homily, if you want it to be effective, spend at least two hours in prayer focused on pleading with Jesus to help you speak his words and to be his mouth as you stand at that ambo. Direct pleading with the Lord. I think the homilies will improve.

Posted in Deacons, Evangelization, homilies | 2 Comments

August of 1978

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Deacon Bob

August, 1978 was an unforgettable month. In it was the death of Pope Paul VI on the Solemnity of the Transfiguration (August 6), the standing in line to see the pope’s body laying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica, his funeral Mass on August 11 (a papal funeral of great simplicity and dignity), then all the rush and hush and gossip in the days leading up to the conclave and the election of John Paul I, Papa Luciani, on August 26. I was so fortunate to have been either in the Vatican or within a 10 minute walk for all of this. As I have mentioned so many times before, being able to bear the cross for John Paul I’s installation Mass early in September is a grace for which I am very grateful.

What many probably don’t recall is how in the preceding weeks leading to Paul VI’s death, there were other things in the news, especially in Italy. The prime minister, Aldo Moro, had been kidnapped by the Brigate Rossi (the Red Brigade) and later found shot to death in a car in downtown Rome. Moro had been someone Paul VI had admired and supported. There was a mutual respect and sense of good will between them. Paul VI hadprayed for Moro’s safe return, and when that did not happen, the pope seem deeply saddened. There had been rumors in the months prior that Paul VI was going to resign the papacy upon his 80th birthday and live out the remainder of his life in a Benedictine monastery in Switzerland, but was dissuaded from doing so by Vatican insiders. As it turned out, Paul VI lived a little less than a year after his 80th birthday, his health and energy depleted. If I recall correctly, he made Giovanni Benelli archbishop of Florence and then quickly elevated him a cardinal, all within a year of Paul VI’s death. Benelli was considered by many to be the most likely to succeed Paul VI, but as we all know, Luciani was elected instead.

If anyone questions whether I was there for all of that, I have the papal tickets and programs to prove it!! O what a unforgettable month…

Because of Moro’s disappearance, the border guards in Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany were very diligent. I was traveling that summer between Italy and Germany by train. I have told the story of my run in with the German police at the border to many people. I won’t bore you with the details here, but suffice it to say it was my wake up call that Germans do not enjoy some of the constitutional rights we here in the USA take for granted. In all fairness to the German border police, they did their job thoroughly and allowed me to continue without much of a delay.

August is also the month of the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe who died on August14 in Auschwitz. Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into heaven. As previously mentioned, August also has within it the celebration of the Transfiguration.

It also is the month of many of my family members birthdays. O happy days!

Have a great week everyone…. and don’t forget to pray for this deacon! I pray for all of you five times a day.

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