An Honor to be Catholic (or Here Comes Everybody)

Old St. Mary's sanctuary (photo source)

I've been feeling a bit out of sorts in my faith of late.  I've always been very turned off by Catholics who publicly push their agenda for married or women priests or anything that is outside of the official teaching of the Church upon the rest of us Catholics.  And lately, I've begun to feel equally turned off by Catholics who publicly criticize the Pope and who push for only Latin Mass and only male altar servers, and a smaller, purer Church etc.  It's a big Church and we all belong, liberal, conservative and everyone in-between, and yet, it seems to me that we can't seem to stand each other.  Where is the love, I wonder?  Why can't we stop being so pushy?  Why can't we stop being so mean-spirited and small-minded?  Is this what Catholicism is really all about?  Must we constantly fight and criticize and trample upon each other in our efforts to be right and to prove everyone who doesn't agree with us to be wrong?

This dilemma, the constant clash between liberal and conservative Catholics, and people who label themselves as such, instead of simply calling themselves Catholic, and acting in a loving manner toward all, has made for a difficult Lent for me and there were many times when I found myself wondering whether I really belong anywhere in this Church, not really feeling particularly liberal or conservative myself but just loving God with all my heart and desperately wanting to draw closer and closer to Him each and every day.

And then the glorious day of the Easter Vigil arrived.  I had been asked to substitute for a lector and extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at this Mass.  I have been a lector for many years and feel quite comfortable proclaiming God's Word, but I've only served as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist on a few occasions and I have never felt comfortable or worthy enough to offer the very Flesh and Blood of the Lord to others.  But, always wanting to model myself after the Blessed Mother, I said "yes" despite my reservations.

I was so nervous on the day of the Vigil that I actually had asked two different people to take my place and was tempted to ask two others, as well, in an attempt to back out of my promise to help.  NOT like the Blessed Mother at all!  Can you imagine her saying, "Uh, God?  I changed my mind about this whole Mother of Christ thing.  I'm too nervous and unworthy to go through with it.  Can you find someone else?"  Thank God she is so much stronger and braver than I!  But, God's plan for me was clearly to have me follow through on my promise, as those I had actually asked to take my place weren't able to accommodate me.

In the end, offering the Precious Blood of our Lord to the communicants at the Easter Vigil was one of the most beautiful and wonderful things I could have done to have enhanced and strengthened my wavering faith.  As an Oblate of the Precious Blood, affiliated with the Handmaids of the Precious Blood, offering all of my prayers for priests, I felt especially moved and overwhelmed as I stood near the altar and Fr. Mike handed the Blood of Christ to me.  I carefully moved down the steps and waited for the communion procession to begin.

First in line was the woman who was just baptized at the Easter Vigil, followed by the four adults who were received into the Church.  To offer the Blood of Christ to them for their very First Holy Communion, was incredibly touching!  Later, my own family members each bowed to the Lord's Blood and then uttered their "Amen's" as I offered them His Blood to drink.  This was an Easter I will never forget!  This was an Easter where I felt exceptionally proud and honored and moved to be Catholic!

Later, as I spoke with two of the newly received, a married couple, they shared a bit of their story with me about how they had long considered Catholicism and studied it from an intellectual viewpoint before finally committing to it.  Through their story, I realized that even though our Church may look ugly and dismal to those on the inside from time to time, to those on the outside looking in, we are a beautiful Church full of mystery and goodness and the Love of God, sinful and messy and full of complainers though we are.  I feel more blessed and proud than ever to call myself a Catholic and I wouldn't give up the beautiful gift of my Catholic faith for anything in the world!

Our Lords the Poor

 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me....Amen,I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me." ~from Matthew 25:31-46

"There are some people whom God takes and sets apart.  There are others he leaves among the crowds, people he does not "withdraw from the world."  These are the people who have an ordinary job, an ordinary household, or an ordinary celibacy.  People with ordinary sicknesses, and ordinary times of grieving.  People with an ordinary house, and ordinary clothes.  These are the people of ordinary life.  The people we might meet on any street.  They love the door that opens onto the street, just as their brothers and sisters who are hidden from the world love the door that shuts behind them forever.  We, the ordinary people of the streets, believe with all our might that this street, this world, where God has placed us, is our place of holiness.  We believe that we lack nothing that we need.  If we needed something else, God would have given it to us."  ~Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel

Samantha Vosters and Shannon Seegers  (Photo Credit:  Tom Klind)

My family and I are blessed with the friendship of a lovely young woman, vibrant and joyful, who has committed her life to serving the poor, working at our parish's Riverwest Food Pantry.  On the Feast of Christ the King, Samantha Vosters made a personal vow of poverty, chastity and obedience giving her heart completely to Jesus and the Church as a laywoman, modeling her life after Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel, a Frenchwoman who was also committed to serving Christ through the poor.

During Mass at St. Casimir Church, concelebrated by three priests with a standing room only crowd, Samantha vowed to remain poor and pure and to follow God's will in her life as she gives herself more completely to serving the poor.  Those in attendance included not only Sam's family and close friends, but also all of those in the parish and community whom Sam serves in her work.  The love that the congregation has for Sam, and the admiration that they feel for the good that she does, was palpable.

photo credit:  Tom Klind

In his homily, the priest, a personal and long-time friend of Sam's, was visibly choked up as he shared the story of how, when he first came to know Sam, he felt that she was simply a happy and joyful person, full of laughter and smiles, and he didn't see much beyond her good-natured personality.  But when he came to see her heart, he knew that she was someone truly special with a deep love for the Lord and a desire to give her all to Him.  I was moved to tears by the priest's emotion.

But it was during the offertory that I really became emotional.  It's the custom at our parish for members of the congregation to come forward bringing gifts, both food and financial donations, leaving them at the foot of the altar for the poor within our community.  As people were moving forward, I noticed an elderly woman walking very slowly and deliberately, not to the altar with a gift, but to where Sam was sitting with her parents.  Sam turned to the woman, grinned her huge smile, and stood up to embrace the woman.  They held each other long before the woman finally released her hold and shuffled slowly to the back of the church and out the door.  It was a deeply touching and beautiful scene, evidence of the kind of love that Sam so freely gives and receives day in and day out in her life devoted to giving to the poor.  And I knew that it wasn't just any elderly woman embracing Sam, but it was Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor, giving love and gratitude for a saintly young woman who has already, and will continue, to give her life for her brothers and sisters in need.

"The poor are not only brothers and sisters to be loved in a brotherly way because they are our brothers and sisters, they are also "our lords the poor" because the poor man is Our Lord.  He is the sacrament of our encounter with Christ, of our love given to Christ."  
~Servant of God, Madeleine Delbrel

Comparison between the Church and Lou Gehrig's disease: A Guest Post by Fr. Benjamin Reese

Enjoy a thought-provoking post by Fr. Benjamin Reese, a priest from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee serving in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Fr. Reese suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease and has used his current health situation to write a brilliant reflection on Holy Mother Church.  Please do keep Fr. Reese in your prayers as he prays for a reprieve from this illness so as to continue his priestly ministry.  You may want to join him in praying through the intercession of Venerable Pope Pius XII in hopes of obtaining a miracle toward the prospect of his sainthood.

My thoughts on ALS and our current crisis in the Church.

I have been praying as to why God has allowed me to develop ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease (not complaining, just wondering why ALS). The Church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the head of the Church, while the Pope functions as his Head on earth. The Head gives orders which the body should obey.

In ALS, the brain keeps working well (in my case it has always been a bit off), but the message no longer gets to the body (especially the tongue in my case). In other words, the head has thoughts which are no longer preached by the tongue, and the arms and legs don't do what the head tells them to do. Interestingly, the heart keeps working which keeps the body alive (although it finally becomes paralyzed). It would seem that the pollution of the spinal cord with bad chemicals and rogue mutant cells is what destroys the nerves and so cuts off communication and finally life.

In this way, ALS seems a perfect metaphor for the Church today. The head is working well and sending out the very same message of Christ which it has always done. We have had holy Popes and all their documents are easily accessible online. However, the message from Christ the head is no longer getting to the Body of Christ (particularly the younger members). The cultural and family environment has been polluted by the relativism and immorality of the modern world, and so the communication system (family life and Catholic education) are no longer conveying the message from Christ the Head, via the Pope, His head on earth. Indeed, many Bishops who function as heads of their own dioceses are also preaching well again today, but the body is not getting the message due to the acidic affects of modern culture on the body of Christ.

As with ALS, the cure will not be an easy one! We must reduce the cultural pollution which is blocking the message from Christ, the head, by turning off the television, violent video games, and access to impure images on the Internet. Also, Catholic education must be reformed so that the rogue mutants who are teaching heresy must be removed from Catholic schools. Bishops are starting to do this, and I have seen that parish schools and Catholic high schools and colleges are revitalized when this happens. We are blessed to already have medicine to heal the body from spiritual ALS, namely Holy Communion, Confession, and the daily Rosary. In other words, the cure is available, but people have to radically alter their life styles to bring about spiritual healing and the healing of the Church.

Finally, this helps me understand why God sent me to Pope Pius XII to pray for a cure. He was the head of the Church on earth, and he ruled it in such a way that the Church overcame modernism during his tenure. However, the level of modernism swelled in 1968, and so Pope Paul VI was not listened to and most Catholics and even many Bishops rejected his teaching on artificial birth control, which has now led to the acceptance of homosexuality.

God sent me on a pilgrimage to Rome to show that the Holy See functions as the head of Christ on earth.

I had Mass with the current Pope, who consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the presence of Our Lady of Fatima. Indeed, the Fatima message shows the primacy of the Pope and gives us the final solution to overcome modernism (spiritual ALS). If Catholics make a spiritual pilgrimage to Rome (in their hearts) and listen often to the message of Pope Francis, then the Church will be healed and so will I. If the people are not willing to listen to priests who are faithful to the Holy Father, then the Church will die and so will I. People did not listen to Jesus, and they Crucified Him. Today, the Body of Christ, His Church is being crucified by us (I am a sinner too). However, when He Arose, His heart poured out rays of Mercy, and that Mercy is always there whenever we turn to Him with Trust (until death when we are judged). O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in Thee! Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us! St. Joseph, pray for us! Padre Pio, pray for us! Ven. Pius XII, pray for us!

3 Reasons I Love Catholicism Vol. 7

"The Lord tells us: ‘The first task in life is this: prayer.’ But not the prayer of words, like a parrot; but the prayer of the heart: gazing on the Lord, hearing the Lord, asking the Lord.” ~Pope Francis

The heart of any religion is prayer, isn't it?  Our personal relationship with God, our love for Him, our desire to draw near and be held close by Him is what keeps us returning to church again and again and gives us the courage to live our faith in our daily lives regardless of the circumstances within which we find ourselves.  So for this edition of 3 Reasons I Love Catholicism, a monthly link-up hosted by Micaela at California to Korea, I am sharing my three favorite forms of private prayer.

1.  Lectio Divina:  Here's a prayer form with staying power, meaning when I pray lectio divina, I can feel the effects of the prayer throughout the remainder of the day, long after my quiet time of prayer is over.  I was first introduced to lectio divina, or divine reading,  by a spiritual director seven years ago, and not a day has gone by since then that I have not put it into use in one way or another.  Lectio Divina consists of four elements:  Lectio (reading), Meditatio (meditation), Oratio (prayer), and Contemplatio (contemplation).  When reading a scripture passage (I usually choose the Mass readings of the day), I try to find one particular sentence that speaks to my heart and use that for my prayer.  In my experience of slowly reading a passage of scripture, meditating upon its meaning, praying with it-asking God to allow His words to enter into my heart and change me, and then resting in His love, I have found a source of peace that I can turn to again and again when the upheavals of daily living threaten to break my spirit.  Spending significant time with scripture brings important and uplifting passages easily to mind in times of need and I am thereby comforted.  Some of my favorite scriptural passages that I find myself praying with over and over again after having used them in Lectio Divina are:

"Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord.  Though your sins be as scarlet, they will become white as snow.  Though crimson red, they will be like wool." ~Isaiah 1:18

"Look to Him that you may be radiant and your faces will not blush with shame."  ~Psalm 34:5

and of course...

"I say to myself, I will not mention His name, I will speak in His name no longer.  But then, it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones, I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it."  ~Jeremiah 20:7-10

2.  The Rosary:  I grew up with the rosary.  Every night at 6:15, a local radio station would air the  rosary and my family would join in.  If my brothers and sisters and I were outside playing, my mom would simply call out "It's 6:15!" and we all knew that meant come to the kitchen and get on your knees for prayer.  Today, the rosary remains a valued part of my prayer life.  My sisters and I get together once each month to pray the rosary together, and I enjoy a daily walk on my lunch break to pray the rosary and reflect upon the stories of scripture that are contained within the mysteries of the rosary.  Each night when I go to bed, I take a rosary with me, clinging to the beads and knowing that the Blessed Mother is holding onto me just as tightly as I hold onto her rosary.

I love this quote about the rosary from Pope John Paul I, who only reigned for 33 days in 1978:

"To be, for a half hour at least, before God as I am in reality, with all my misery and with the best of myself; to let rise to the surface from the depths of my being the child I once was, who wants to laugh, to chatter, to love the Lord and who sometimes feels the need to cry so that he may be shown mercy, helps me to pray. The rosary, a simple and easy prayer, helps me to be a child and I am not ashamed at all."

Not in the habit of praying the rosary and want more information on how to do it?  Here's a nice instructional:  How to Pray the Rosary by Syte Reitz 

3.  The Liturgy of the Hours:   Are you comforted to know that right now, somewhere in the world, someone is praying this ancient prayer of the Church?  The Liturgy of the Hours or The Divine Office sanctifies the day.  The clergy and religious are required to pray The Divine Office, but anyone can join in and pray without ceasing using this rich form of prayer.  The Liturgy of the Hours consists of Lauds (Morning Prayer), Terce (Mid-morning Prayer), Sext (Midday Prayer), None (Afternoon Prayer), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (Night Prayer.)

For myself, I am only in the habit of praying Lauds each morning, but the thought of people praying for the entire Church at regular intervals throughout the day brings me comfort and peace.  Someone is always reaching out to God on behalf of all of humanity and we are blessed.

There is a easy to use online resource for the Liturgy of the Hours.   If you are interested in joining your prayers to the voices of many others in the church, visit Universalis here.

"Lord, open our lips, and we shall praise your name."  ~from Liturgy of the Hours

Visit Micaela for more reasons to love Catholicism.

3 Reasons I Love Catholicism Vol. 6

It's time once again for the monthly link-up with Micaela at California to Korea in which bloggers are invited to share three reasons for their love of Catholicism.  Here I offer my humble contribution, sharing three more reasons why I love my Catholic faith from a list that grows more and more each day.

1.  Preferential Option for the Poor

"Oh how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor."  ~Pope Francis

As a long-term employee of the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Program that offers nutrition education and vouchers for healthy foods to low income women and their young children, I love that my Church focuses on the importance of helping the poor and disadvantaged and offers many programs such as meal sites, food pantries, homeless shelters and other resources for those who are financially down and out.  I think it's significant that the Church offers not only practical help to the poor, but also spiritual help for their souls.  There are many downtown and inner city churches whose doors are open throughout the day, allowing the poor and homeless a place to sit and rest in the quiet of the presence of the Lord. How can time in His presence not spiritually enrich those who partake of it?

Recently, it was announced at my parish, that a fairly young man who had regularly patronized the parish food pantry, had recently passed away. He had few friends and family as depression had caused him to alienate himself, so when he died he had no funeral; there was nobody to pray for his soul.  When the parish volunteers who run the food pantry heard about this sad situation, they quickly sought to remedy it, and they planned a memorial Mass for Stephen Luchinske at Our Lady of Divine Providence (St. Casimir's) with Fr. Tim Kitzke presiding.  There, at that Mass, Stephen's soul was given a reverent and prayerful offering to the state of eternal rest.  What a beautiful example of serving the poor, whether in life or in death!

Eternal rest grant unto Stephen Luchinske, O God, and let perpetual light shine upon him.  May Stephen's soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

2.  Large Families

"How can there be too many children?  That is like saying there are too many flowers."  ~Mother Teresa

As the youngest of nine children and the mother of five, I love the fact that the Catholic Church teaches about the sanctity and value of all human life, and requires that married couples be open to all life within their marriage.  I can't imagine my life without a houseful of people around me.  There is always someone nearby to talk to and embrace, and with whom I can share every aspect of life.  I can never complain that life is dull or boring or lonely for long, before I become engaged in the needs of those who depend upon me, or am filled with the joy and peace that comes from being surrounded by those who care for me.  We are definitely a relational Church and healthy relationships have their ideal beginning in the Catholic home filled with love, faith and prayer.  When people look at my family and say, "You must be Catholic!"  I hold my head up high and exclaim, "Yes, we are!"

3.  Statues 

"If it is, as it is indeed, a good and virtuous thing to kiss devoutly a book in which Christ's life and death are expressed by writing, then why should it be a bad thing to kiss reverently the images by which Christ's life and Passion are represented by sculpture or painting?"  ~St. Thomas More

For me, one of the highlights of my role as President of Roses for Our Lady comes when I go to Catholic Conferences or other events where I am able to set up a table to promote Roses for Our Lady.  I always bring our statue of Our Lady of Fatima with me and place her on the table with her scapular and rosary in hand and a lit candle before her.  As I busily visit and share the history of, and events sponsored by Roses for Our Lady with those who pause at my table, I am often struck by the number of people who stop in their tracks with a look of deep love and devotion upon their faces as they gaze upon the statue of the Blessed Mother.  Many people will reach up to tenderly touch her face, or to give her a little kiss or a hug.

What joy it brings us as Catholics to have these visual reminders of the saintly ones who have gone before us, leading the way to our own sanctity by their holy examples.  Our desire to physically kiss a statue or a crucifix is simply a sign of our love for God offered through a reverent gesture of gratitude and love to those who have given their lives completely over to Him.

Photo credit:  Huffington Post

Want more reasons to love Catholicism?  Visit here for my previous posts on this topic and visit Micaela to find even more contributions.

Cardinal Dolan: Who Do You Say That I Am?

my favorite photo of Cardinal Dolan-credit:  Sam Lucero-visit Inspired Images website

This past Wednesday, at daily Mass, Bishop Sklba shared a charming story about Cardinal Dolan.  It seems that Bishop Sklba spent some time in New York visiting the Cardinal and they decided to go for a walk to a museum that was about a mile away.  It was probably the longest mile they ever walked because Cardinal Dolan couldn't take more than two steps before people would recognize him and ask him to pray for them or would share their concerns with the good Cardinal.  Bishop Sklba said that he imagined that Cardinal Dolan has a good idea of what Jesus felt like in  the passage from Luke 4:38-44 where the people were all bringing their sick to Jesus and tried to preventing him from leaving their town because they were so pleased with all of the good he was doing.  Everybody just wants him to stay nearby.

It's clear that the people of Milwaukee are certainly pleased with Cardinal Dolan for all of the good that he does and we want him to stay nearby as well, as was evident by the crowd of 4000 people who showed up at the Milwaukee Theater to hear him speak at the tenth annual Pallium Lecture, the lecture series that Cardinal Dolan himself started when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee.

The evening's emcee was Fr. Paul Hartman, the president of Waukesha's Catholic Memorial High School.  On surveying the size of the crowd, Fr. Paul cracked that it was a normal size for Cardinal Dolan's typical Sunday Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the size of a symposium given in San Francisco by Bishop Sklba, and the size of Bishop Hying's fan club!  Cardinal Dolan commented that the crowd of 4000 was bigger than a normal Met's game!

Cardinal Dolan's topic was "Who Do You Say That I Am?  Encountering Christ and Responding to Christ through His Living Body, the Church."

Cardinal Dolan began his talk with these loving words:  "My seven years in Milwaukee were extraordinarily happy ones and I miss you."  Then he joked that four cardinals have come from Milwaukee, and one day Milwaukee will have it's own version of Mount Rushmore with the four cardinal's faces all engraved upon the Allen-Bradley clock tower!

He shared the story of how, when he was still an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis, he was called to the apostolic nuncio's office.  He was offered a cigarette and he declined because he doesn't smoke.  Then he was offered a drink, and he said no thanks, he'd wait until they went out to dinner.  Then the nuncio told him that Pope John Paul II wanted him to be the Archbishop of Milwaukee and to that the Cardinal said, "I'll take that cigarette and drink now!"

After the laughter subsided, Cardinal Dolan became dead serious about his topic for the evening.  He began by sharing the story of St. Paul falling from his horse and the Lord's question of him, "Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  He didn't ask, why are you persecuting my Church, but why are you persecuting me.  That's because Jesus and His Church are one, synonymous, a package deal.   St. Paul loved the Church and Jesus passionately because they are one.  He then quoted Henri de Lubac regarding the Catholic Church:  "For what would I ever have known of Him without Her?"  He said we can't call God our Father if we don't call the Church our Mother.

Cardinal Dolan spoke about the post-ecclesiastical world in which we live where we want the King without the Kingdom, to believe without belonging, spirituality without religion and Christ without the Church.  Impossible!  He quoted Archbishop Listecki who said, "There is no freelance Christianity.  Without the Church, there is no Christ."

In speaking of the many Catholics who refer to themselves as "former Catholics," those who have fallen away from the practice of the church, he suggested three possible roads as a model to bring those lapsed Catholics back to the fold.

1.  Family

The Church is my spiritual family.  Ninety-nine percent of Catholics are born into the faith.  It's in our DNA, our bones, our genes.  We might drift and get mad and be scandalized or confused by it.  So what?  Our spiritual family is just like our human family.  We get angry, scandalized and confused by our human family too.  "Have you ever met my brother Bob?" he joked.  But we never leave our family.  We are there at all of the pivotal moments-Christmas, Easter, births and deaths.  We're at the table every Sunday.  We're stuck with our last names whether we like them or not.  Catholics are marinated, seasoned in the Church.  The Church is my spiritual family.  It's my  home.

He shared an example from the book, "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene.  In it, a whiskey priest from Mexico was hiding in a barn, and a young girl who was helping him suggested that he renounce his Catholic faith for his safety.  The priest replied that it would be impossible, he could never do it.  And then the girl understood that the Catholic faith is like a birthmark, it is always a part of who you are.  You are born with it and it will remain with you forever.

2.  Apologetics

Apologetics is the art of credibly, convincingly presenting our faith.  It's not  in-your-face and brash,  but rather a humble, cheerful, rational, confident grounding in faith.  The Cardinal used an example familiar to every parish priest at this time of year.  A young man leaves home for college after a strong Catholic upbringing with regular Sunday Mass attendance and an education at Catholic schools.  At his first visit home he tells his parents that he doesn't go to Mass anymore.  Instead he is attending the church of his roommate.  The parents are filled with sorrow and question how this could have happened.  The answer is because the roommate was well-off in apologetics and swayed their son away from the Catholic faith.

The Church is necessary for salvation.  We have survived dungeon, fire and sword. Apologetics prepares us to defend our faith against those who would take it from us.  Those liberators might be late-night talk show hosts or writers of newspaper editorials.  We have to be strong in knowledge of our faith so that when they accuse us of worshiping the Pope, or of being cannibals, or of treating Mary as if she were God, we can remain strong.  We need to let them know that we cherish our Church and are prepared to care for it.  That is apologetics and we need it more than ever.

3.  Repentance

We need to fess up to the sinful side of the Church.  We need it.  People are shocked, saddened and sickened by acts of the clergy and hierarchy.  It's been said that the Catholic Church is clearly from God because no human organization that is run with such imbecility could have survived two weeks let alone 2000 years!

It was Flannery O'Connor who said, "Suffering for  the church doesn't bother me.  It's suffering from her that's hard to take!"  Blessed Pope John Paul II apologized fifty-five times during the Jubilee Year for the past sins of the Church and Ronald Rolheiser describes the Church as Christ hanging between two thieves.  But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.  After the resurrection, Jesus showed us that His wounds remained.  We are also wounded.

The Cardinal shared a story from Bishop Skbla about a parish in the northern regions of the Archdiocese that was being closed.  The parishioners came to accept the closing and after all of the sacramentals had been removed and only an empty building remained, it was decided to burn the building down as a sacred offering.  Everyone came to watch as the volunteer fire department set the blaze which burned so intensely that everyone had to back away.  The next morning, Bishop Sklba returned to find people with gloves on gathering up the thick nails that were stacked up along the foundation.  They were collecting them as souvenirs.  It was the nails that had held the church together.  It's the nails of Christ that hold the Church together.  We are a wounded Church and we love Her all the more for Her wounds.

When people say that they left the Church because She's so sinful, we say we cling to Her because we are too. St. Francis de Sales had a simple motto written on his tombstone:  "He loved the Church."  That needs to be our motto, too.  We believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and She gives us the answer to Christ's question, "Who do you say that I am?"

To learn more about the Pallium Lecture Series visit this link.  Photos below courtesy of Mary Anne Urlakis.  Thanks, Mary Anne!

3 Reasons I Love Catholicism Vol. 5

Here I am at this wickedly late hour,  joining Micaela at California to Korea and sharing three of my favorite things about my beloved Catholic faith that are resonating within my soul this month...

1.  Confession and Forgiveness:  They go together, don't they?  That day when my daughter and I did battle over teenage fashion like mothers and daughters sometimes do, we were both left feeling emotionally raw from anger and sorrow and poor judgment.  Twelve-year-olds aren't the only ones who suffer from growing pains and the struggle to mature.

So the next night when Dad took the boys to the baseball game, mother and daughter headed downtown to Gesu's dark basement church for confession, and we stood in line, waiting to beg forgiveness from our Lord.  Ancient Fr. Herian came creaking around the corner in his cassock that hung limply from his bony frame and we each took our turn in the box.  I love that Fr. Herian.  He spoke of how confession is for encouragement and told me to spend the month of August praying for courage.  Then he pointed out the crucifix hanging on the wall above my head.  He asked me to look long and hard at Jesus suffering and dying there and to repeat after him three times, and together we prayed, "Jesus, crucified for me, have mercy on me, a sinner.  Jesus, crucified for me, have mercy on me, a sinner.  Jesus, crucified for me, have mercy on me, a sinner."  I left the confessional with a smile on my face to find my daughter who was silently kneeling as she offered her penance.  We embraced and sighed with contentment and peace.

Then we headed over to Cempazuchi, my favorite Mexican restaurant on Brady Street, part of "The Fashionable East Side", and we sat outside and ate and talked and laughed and prayed with the Angelus Bells ringing at St. Hedwig's across the street and watched the people walk past and we had a lovely time. The best mother/daughter time ever.  And all is forgiven.  And the mercy of our loving God warmed our souls and we relaxed in His love which embraces us both.

 2.  Processions:  There are times when this is not exactly on my favorites list.  There are times when processions cause me too much stress and worry and I fail to trust in the Lord thinking that I have to control everything.  That's because I'm the procession planner for Roses for Our Lady and the devil hates it when Catholics gather by the hundreds and bring the Eucharist out into the street and pray the rosary on a loudspeaker to draw attention to our beautiful faith.  So that evil one makes sure he gives me all he's got to try to keep me from getting my job done.  But he always fails because Our Lady's love is so much stronger than his ugly hatred.  She crushes his head every time.  So there are always difficulties and challenges when planning our Eucharistic Rosary Processions, but when the pieces finally fall together, it is a beautiful sight to behold, and I will do it again and again for the joy that it brings to my Mother who continually suffers from the sins of this world.

Roses for Our Lady's May Crowning Eucharistic Rosary Procession

Bishop Hying, Fr. Tim Kitzke, Fr. Enrique Hernandez, Fr. Paul Schneider, OFM Conv. (just before his ordination)

Fr. Matthew Widder with Our Lord

If you are in the Milwaukee area, you will want to join Roses for Our Lady and Bishop Donald Hying at our September 8th procession in honor of the Blessed Mother's Birthday and on October 6th in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary.   They will both be equally beautiful celebrations!  Details can be found here.

3.  Homilies:  A good homily is food for the soul. It has the power to nurture and inspire me to joyfully live my faith and will often remain in my thoughts throughout the upcoming week.  Of course, I've never heard anyone say that they love a dull, uninspiring homily, so I know I'm not alone in my love for a good homily.

The thing about a homily that makes it so special is that it's the breaking open of the Gospel reading, not simply a sermon about any topic that happens to be on the pastor's heart at the present moment.  Through the homily, we learn and understand a bit more about the Gospel and how we are called to live it in our daily lives. We are given a glimpse into the very heart of Jesus through the words of the priest.

What are three of your reasons for loving Catholicism?  List them in the comments or join Micaela and write your own blog post about them!

Lumen Fidei

I love this picture, don't you?

Have you read Lumen Fidei, the encyclical written with four hands, yet?  I confess that I was a bit distracted trying to figure out which part was written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and which was written by our current pontiff, Francis.  I decided that the last chapter was completely Francis because it seemed so easy to read and I found so much inspiration in it, although the whole document was fabulous.  Here's what I loved the most:

"Faith is no refuge for the fainthearted, but something which enhances our lives. It makes us aware of a magnificent calling, the vocation of love. It assures us that this love is trustworthy and worth embracing, for it is based on God’s faithfulness which is stronger than our every weakness." 

"Faith teaches us to see that every man and woman represents a blessing for me, that the light of God’s face shines on me through the faces of my brothers and sisters."

"Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light." 

You can read the whole thing here.

Heartbroken Love

"This is the meaning of the cross:  God is heartbroken love."  ~Fr. Robert Barron

"We can never pass a crucifix with indifference because there we see Jesus with His head bent to kiss us,  His arms outstretched to hold us, and His feet nailed fast to pardon our sins."  ~Bishop Donald Hying

Here in Milwaukee the Church has been struggling through some particularly difficult times in recent weeks.  Our Archdiocese is in the process of filing for bankruptcy and as part of the proceedings we had to publish the complete records of all of the cases of priests who have abused minors in the Archdiocese going back 80 years.  My understanding of the purpose of revealing the details of these cases is that  it would help with healing.  For my part, I don't get it.  I was only able to look at one record before I was so sick to my stomach and to my heart that I had to close the file and couldn't bear to look at another one.  I don't understand how reading through the grim details of child sexual abuse could help anyone heal.  For me, hearing about these cases in the news once again only served to increase my pain and sorrow.

During the summer season my family and I have been blessed to attend several graduation parties and other social events.  Sooner or later the topic of discussion inevitably has come around to the release of these records and the outrage that many feel against the Church because of this horrific black mark that is forever laid upon our shoulders.  Time and again people have told me that they have stopped going to church because of the abuse scandal and they won't return until the Church straightens up her act.  No matter what the hierarchy do to apologize, pay victims financially, and work toward assuring these situations never happen again, it's never enough.  Forgiveness is hard to come by.  The saddest comment I heard from a formerly active Catholic was  "God and I are tight.  I don't need the Church-that's only people."

What makes me really sad is not just that the Church is losing out on some really great people in the pews, but that Jesus is losing out on the faithful worship that is His due.  I think it's easy for some to forget that God lives within all of those people who make up the Church.  God lives within all of those good and holy priests whose ministry is made so much more difficult by bearing the burden of those wayward priests whose sins against children caused so much damage.  And most of all, God lives in the Eucharist inside the tabernacle.  How He must long for the company of all of those who are allowing their anger to keep them away!

So this sexual abuse scandal, these tragic, heinous, appalling circumstances, have convinced me that my presence is needed more than ever within the walls of the Church.  My prayers of love and worship, my acts of atonement, my silent company, and my daily living of my Catholic faith as a witness to the world helps to bring a bit of joy to Christ's sorrowful Heart.  For who was hurt by the abusive priests more than Jesus Himself who lives within the souls of each and every child victim and within the abusive priests themselves as an alter Christus.  How completely crushed with pain it must make Him feel to endure this situation.

I look up at the cross and I see the nail marks, the wounds in His side, the thorns pressing into His head and I am overcome with the realization that He did this for me.  He did this for me and for all of His children, sinners that we are.  And when we allow our anger to keep us away from Him we only intensify His suffering.  If we could only unite our suffering with His in fidelity to prayer and Mass attendance, then, perhaps, we could all find the healing that we so desperately seek.

I remember His words to St. Margaret Mary, "Behold this Heart which has so loved men."  I remember His plea to her to work to draw others closer to His Sacred Heart and I am convinced that I must do all I can to love Him more and to spend more and more time in prayer with Him in my own small effort to atone for all that He suffers.   I ask you to join me in giving more of your life to Him.  Come to Mass every Sunday and even daily if you can.  Receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist with all of the love that is in your heart.  Spend some time in adoration.  Give loving care to those around you in His name.  Confess your own sins and receive His blessed absolution.  Give Him your love and attention.  Help to heal His broken Heart.

Our Lord's words to St. Margaret Mary:

“It is the ingratitude of men which has hurt Me more than all the suffering I underwent during My Passion. If only they would make some return for My love, I should think but little of all I have done for them and would wish, were it possible, to suffer still more. But the sole return they make for all My eagerness to do them good is to reject Me and treat Me with coldness. Do thou at least console Me by supplying for their ingratitude as far as thou art able.”

“Behold this Heart, Which has loved men so much, that It has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to them Its love; and in return I receive from the greater number nothing but ingratitude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus...”

Three Reasons I Love Catholicism Vol. 3 and 4

I missed this link-up last month but I'm determined not to let that happen again.  When I miss out on sharing  what I love about Catholicism, I miss out on so much joy!  I'm so grateful to Micaela at California to Korea for hosting this great link-up.  Visit her blog for so many more highlights of our fabulous Catholic faith!  Here's what my Catholic heart is reveling in this month:

St. Francis preaches to the birds

1.  Saints:  How much we learn from striving to follow their holy example and from contemplating the treasures contained in their words!  My favorites are St. Jane de Chantal, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Philomena, St. Maria Goretti, St. Margaret Mary, St. Veronica, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Joseph and (soon to be!) St. Pope John Paul.

"But, alas, what is there to the joys of this life?  There is nothing solid in them and they pass away like a dream.  I cannot understand how a heart that seeks God and wants to love Him can relish any pleasure outside of Him."  ~St. Margaret Mary

2.  Sacramentals:  I'm very tactile oriented;  I have to touch and feel things.  So I love to dip my fingers into holy water and lavishly bless myself with it, leaving the tell-tale water marks to slowly evaporate upon my forehead and shirt.  Lighting a blessed candle and watching my prayer flicker toward heaven, knowing that it will continue to burn strong until all of the wax is melted, moves me deeply.  Fingering the rosary beads, or letting my thumb and forefinger frequently, and often absentmindedly, find the crucifix and medals that hang around my neck brings me comfort.  Through these sacramentals, I feel that my soul touches a bit of heaven each day.

3.  Prayer Postures:  Again, it's the tactile thing.  Knees bent, hands folded, head bowed, sign of the cross made with right hand moving over my head, heart and shoulders-these are the actions that help me feel the presence of God in a more tangible way, and that allow me to show my devotion to God with my whole body and soul.  When I attend Mass at a church where the kneelers have been removed and the people in the congregation stand instead of kneeling, I feel a bit robbed of the power of my prayer.  Kneeling, to me, is a necessity.  One of my favorite quotes comes from my sister, Sharen, who defends kneeling as opposed to standing.  She says,  "Kneeling is half-standing."  Amen to that!

Three Reasons I Love Catholicism

I discovered a link-up where bloggers are invited to write about their three favorite aspects of Catholicism and I just love that idea!  The hardest part is limiting it to only three reasons because I could probably come up with thousands of them.  The host of the link-up is Micaela at California to Korea.  Thanks for the great idea, Micaela!  Here's my attempt to limit my love for this amazing, beautiful, fabulous, awesome, marvelous (I could go on and on) Catholic faith of ours.  Visit Micaela for more thoughts from other bloggers and feel free to join in with your own list of three reasons why you love being Catholic.

1)  Most likely number one on every Catholic's list is the EUCHARIST.  My source, substance and greatest desire is to dine daily on the Bread of Heaven, His most Sacred Heart in the form of food, full of love and freely given to me,  from which all graces flow.  It is the one thing about Catholicism that I love the most and for which I am most grateful.  I just can't live without the Precious Body and Blood of my Lord.  On the night of the Last Supper when He instituted this gift, Jesus was well aware that this soul-sustaining food was the only necessary thing that can carry us through each and every day of life straight to the gates of heaven.  So with gratitude I receive the Body and the Blood of my Lord each morning and then, well nourished, I carry Him out into the world in which I live to share Him with others through the words and actions of my day.  This prayer of thanksgiving from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood prayer book sums my feelings up so nicely:

Offering of Holy Communion as Viaticum

O my God, if I am to die today or suddenly at any time, I wish to receive this Communion as my Viaticum.  I desire that my last food may be the Body and Blood of my Savior and Redeemer; my last words, Jesus, Mary and Joseph; my last affection, an act of pure love of God and of perfect contrition for my sins; my last consolation, to die in Your holy grace and in Your holy love.  Amen.

2)  In my life I have been greatly blessed to have the love and friendship of so many holy priests who selflessly share their lives for the good of others.  So the HOLY PRIESTHOOD is definitely at the top of my list of favorite things about the Catholic Church.  It is only the priest who can take the simple elements of bread and wine and have them transformed into the living Body and Blood of my Lord within their very hands.  It is only the priest who can patiently listen to my monotonous litany of sins and then absolve me, freeing me to enjoy the state of grace within my soul until, in my weakness, I stumble into sin once again.  It is only the priest who serves not only as my earthly father, but as my mother, my brother, my teacher and my most treasured friend as well.  It is to him that I can take all of my joys and sorrows knowing that he will keep them in confidence and then will pray both with and for me, always having the sanctity of my soul as his highest priority.  It is my greatest honor and joy to love and to pray for the priests who have touched my life and who care for my soul.  Pray with me?

Prayer for Priests by Fr. William Doyle, SJ

O my God, pour out in abundance Thy spirit of sacrifice upon Thy priests. It is both their glory and their duty to become victims, to be burnt up for souls, to live without ordinary joys, to be often the objects of distrust, injustice, and persecution.

The words they say every day at the altar, "This is my Body, this is my Blood," grant them to apply to themselves: "I am no longer myself, I am Jesus, Jesus crucified. I am, like the bread and wine, a substance no longer itself, but by consecration another."

O my God, I burn with desire for the sanctification of Thy priests. I wish all the priestly hands which touch Thee were hands whose touch is gentle and pleasing to Thee, that all the mouths uttering such sublime words at the altar should never descend to speaking trivialities.

Let priests in all their person stay at the level of their lofty functions, let every man find them simple and great, like the Holy Eucharist, accessible to all yet above the rest of men. O my God, grant them to carry with them from the Mass of today, a thirst for the Mass of tomorrow, and grant them, ladened themselves with gifts, to share these abundantly with their fellow men. Amen.

3)  There is no one on earth who understands us like our earthly mother and so there is no one in heaven who understands us better than our heavenly mother, either.  My  BLESSED MOTHER MARY is crucial to my peace of mind and soul, so she is definitely one of my top three favorite parts about being Catholic.  She said "yes" to God, she allowed the Holy Spirit to penetrate her soul and she carried my Lord within her very womb.  She loves me, she understands me, she prays for me.  She asks, "I am not here; I who am your mother?  Are you not under the shadow of my protection?" She takes my concerns to her Son and begs Him to have mercy and clemency upon my soul.  She asks Him to give me all that I need to be joyful and holy.  She models the perfection of holiness for me so that I can follow her beautiful example.  How blessed we are as Catholics to have a Holy Mother who loves each and every one of us so much!  So we honor her with this prayer:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

Fr. Jim Kubicki's Heroic Catholicism: Can You Live the Faith Today?

It was a bit of short notice, but I learned about a talk that was to be given by one of my favorite friends, Fr. Jim Kubicki, SJ, the National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer,  from a facebook friend who is now, thankfully, a real-life friend as well.  The topic was Heroic Catholicism:  Can You Live the Faith Today?  Fr. Jim's lecture was sponsored by the Marquette University Knights of Columbus for the 2013 Walter Ciszek Lecture.  I wasn't sure that I could fit one more thing into my already busy day, but this talk sounded so intriguing that I knew it was worth a try.  It took a little bit of heroism on my part just to get there after a long and busy day at work, followed by my son's basketball game, then a hastily prepared supper for the few family members that didn't have outside activities that evening, and finally driving in a downpour of winter rain.  But had I missed Fr. Jim's lecture, I would have missed an awful lot because it was fabulous!  I can always count on Fr. Jim to inspire me with his easily understandable lectures, and his talk on heroic Catholicism fit the bill!  His talk was so good that I wanted to share my notes here so that others could benefit from his inspiring words.

Here's my summary of Fr. Jim Kubicki's Heroic Catholicism:  Can You Live the Faith Today?

Fr. Jim began by speaking about a book that was written by a psychologist in 1978.  It was rejected by the publisher because it included a chapter on religion.  Nobody would buy it, they thought.  Finally Simon and Schuster accepted it and released it as a paperback in 1980.  Upon publication this little book made publishing history and was on the New York Times bestseller list for ten years.  It began with these words:  "Life is difficult."  Well everyone already knows that life is difficult but most people don't know how to get through this difficult life so they purchased The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck to find out how to do so.  And the author offered four means of coping with a difficult life:

1.  Discipline-delayed gratification
2.  Love-dispel the myth of romantic love-true love begins when the feelings wear off
3.  Religion-deep faith in God
4.  Grace-the power outside of ourselves that can bring healing and growth

The message in this book is counter-cultural.  We live in a culture that says you can have it your way, don't accept responsibility, make excuses, and everyone is doing  it.  Our culture equates love with sex, it's a "hook-up" culture all about me and how I feel, and religion is unscientific and untrue.

Viktor Frankl

Fr. Jim then shared the story of Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychologist who studied human behavior during the 1920's and 1930's.  He had many patients who had lost all hope in the economic crash of 1929, including their will to live.  The suicide rate was increasing.  Frankl tried to bring healing and hope to those who were suffering.  When World War II began, the United States offered him a visa to America.  But they only offered him one visa so Frankl refused it in favor of remaining in Austria with his family.  Eventually he was sent to Auschwitz.  While he was there he noticed two types of people-those who had strength and health and those who were weak and died.  What was the difference?  Frankl observed that those who survived had purpose and meaning in their lives that went beyond themselves.  The survivors had a sense of transcendence and they willed to live for their family, their art, or their religion.

These two psychiatrists and authors have found that the secret of a good, happy, fulfilled life on a basic level has to do with spiritual values that don't revolve around the self but that goes out to others and to God.  This notion is basic for supernatural happiness and heroic Catholicism.  Heroic Catholicism helps us to live well here and in the hereafter.

Back in the 1960's JFK said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  Now apply this saying to the Church today.  Most people would turn that around and say, "What can the Church do for me?"  or "I don't get anything out of going to Mass"  or "The Church is all about rules and doctrines."  It was Pope John Paul II who said about Christian living that, "It's a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity marked by a minimalist ethic and shallow religiosity."  We can see his point when we hear people ask "How far can I go before its a sin?" and "What's the minimum requirement to be in good standing with the Church or with God?"

When it comes to love you don't ask about the minimum, you say, "What can I do to show that I love you?"    When we fail to give the maximum in our faith we become not only mediocre Christians, but Christians at risk.  We need to take our faith seriously.  Secularism eats away at our faith.  Pope Benedict XVI speaks about two kinds of atheism:  The theoretical atheism where people struggle to believe in God and practical atheism in which the truths of faith aren't denied but they are detached from life.  People believe in God in a superficial manner and live as though God did not exist.  Practical atheism is more destructive than theoretical atheism.

Pope Benedict XVI

In Pope Benedict's lenten message for 2013 he says, “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.  I observed that being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction … Since God has first loved us  love is now no longer a mere ‘command’; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.” 

This is what makes up heroic Catholicism.  It's a living relationship with the Person who transforms our life.  And what does heroic Catholicism look like?  To find out we look to the example of the saints such as Saint Ignatius of Loyola whose example of discernment revealed a movement of God within his heart leaving him with peace and joy instead of emptiness, and  Servant of God Dorothy Day whom Cardinal O'Connor spoke about as an "idealist in a non-ideal world."

Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ

Fr. Walter Ciszek, also a Servant of God, was a tough and independent young man who entered the Jesuits and went to the Soviet Union as a manual laborer and from there was sent to solitary confinement in Siberia.  It was there that he learned the lesson that you can't depend upon yourself, you have to depend upon God.  When asked how he survived his ordeal he gave a one-word answer:  faith.  And how do we make our faith come alive?  Through prayer such as the morning offering which is one of the best practices of prayer.  Through it we accept from God and offer back to Him all of our works, joys, sorrows and sufferings of our day.  We are reminded of His providence.  We can pray always by making each action of the day a prayer since it has been offered to God.  Through the daily morning offering we become aware of God in the events of our daily life.

Blessed Mother Teresa

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta wrote back in 1955:  "Pray for me for within me everything is icy cold, it is only blind faith that carries me through.  Within me all is darkness."  In 1959 she wrote:  "The whole time smiling.  People pass remarks, they think my faith, trust and love are filling my entire being.  Could they but know that my cheerfulness is the cloak with which I cover my desolation and misery.  The darkness is so dark and the pain so painful."  The world didn't understand this because she felt one thing but did the opposite.  That's virtue and holiness. And we, too, can be virtuous and holy when we, like Blessed Teresa, act against what we feel.

There's an old saying, "Don't feel your way into acting.  Act your way into feeling.  Act and the feeling will follow."  We are heroic when we don't let our feelings control what we do.  Be faithful in the little things we do every day-this is heroic Catholicism.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "The battle between good and evil crosses every human heart."  No one can escape it.

But we know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He's the truth about God and truth about how to live.  Follow Him for deeper joy and peace amidst trials and struggles because life is difficult.  We are fortunate to have Jesus in prayer and sacrament.  Our greatest prayer is the Mass where we find Jesus in word and flesh, united to us in Holy Communion.  He strengthens us to live this heroic life.

Tom Burnett

A real-life hero of  recent years was a man named Tom Burnett.  Tom was on Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001. At his funeral service a man who had known him during his college years told his wife that the man who was eulogized at the funeral, a man who was said to attend daily Mass, didn't at all resemble the man that he knew in college whose faith was weak.  His wife spoke about how he began to go to daily Mass in 1997.  He didn't tell her about it at first and she had thought that he was simply working more hours.  But when he finally told her where he was spending so much time he said that he felt that God was calling him to something big but he didn't know what it was.  He thought that if he went to church and prayed it would become clearer to him.  He knew that he would impact a lot of people and it would have something to do with the White House but beyond that sure feeling, he just faithfully went to Mass each day and waited to see what God had in store for him.  Now we know exactly what it was that God was calling Tom Burnett to do with his life and as a result of his actions on Flight 93 on that tragic day we all call Tom Burnett a hero.

We are all called to live our faith in a world that eats away at our faith.  Do you have it in you to live that faith today?  You will if you have Christ in the word and Sacrament because Christ will be living in you.  That will give you the courage to live Heroic Catholicism.