Priest hearing confessions, Philipp Schumacher (1866-1940) via Wikimedia

This post is linked to Sunday Snippets at This That and the Other Thing.

Do you want to be a saint?  I do.  I mean that I want to end up in heaven with God and all the others He created who are one with Him in charity.  Becoming a saint is impossible, though, if we depend on ourselves. Moreover, we must leave this world a saint in order to be one in the next.  Fortunately, nothing is impossible to God and His magnanimous love for each of His creatures.  All we have to do is cooperate with Him.

At the Last Supper Jesus consecrated all the apostles as priests.  In that event He set them apart so that they were no longer men like other men, but were instead to stand in His place in a special way.  That’s why we describe the priest as an alter Christus – another Christ.

Just hours after instituting the sacrament of the sacred priesthood Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified thanks to the help of Judas. His remaining apostles, except for St. John, ran off and hid themselves behind locked doors.  Confusion, despair, grief and shame must have enveloped the souls of these newly ordained priests.  But inside of three days Jesus rose from the dead and came to where ten of the remaining eleven, including St. John, had gathered.  He didn’t knock.  He just came right through those doors as if they weren’t even there.

John 20:19-23 is a passage I love for many reasons, but especially because it tells of the institution behind those locked doors of the sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation), one of the ways we cooperate with God’s work in making us saints.

Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad [I think this is an understatement.  They must have been jumping up and down and hollering with joy], when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

And so it was that Jesus gave the apostles the power through the Spirit of Charity to stand in His place and forgive our sins, bringing us peace of heart.  Another aspect of the sacred priesthood where the priest acts as alter Christus.

This is why I look at every confession as an appointment with Jesus. Jesus is sitting behind the screen focusing His full attention on me and what I’m saying.  He hears not only the words but the language of the heart.  He gives the priest the grace to offer me useful guidance for amending my life just as He gives me the grace to confess what I’ve done that offended Him.

Jesus, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the one who forgives my sins. The Roman rite Church gives the priest these theologically perfect words to remind me that my sins are forgiven in His name (1962 Extraordinary Form):

May almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you your sins, and lead you to everlasting life. R.: Amen.

May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you pardon, absolution, + and remission of your sins. R.: Amen.

May our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you. And I by His authority release you from every bond of excommunication (suspension) and interdict, in so far as I am empowered and you have need. And now I absolve you from your sins; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. R.: Amen.

The priest may add, time permitting:

May the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints, whatever good you have done, and whatever evil you have endured, achieve for you the forgiveness of your sins, an increase of grace and the reward to eternal life. Amen.

In the Ordinary Form (1969 liturgical books) the priest says:

God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Every confession sincerely done is an act of humility and trust in God’s mercy.  Every confession is a source of joy and of real peace, of resolution and of greater clarity and cooperation with God in ridding myself of rust. By looking at confession as an appointment with Jesus, I look forward to going.  I don’t worry so much any more about accusing myself of the same sins and faults repeatedly.  Nothing makes Jesus happier than to have somebody He died for coming to visit Him and giving Him an opportunity through free will to apply His healing grace.

Love is like that.  Love wants to bring peace and well-being to the tortured and stricken.  We are all tortured and stricken.  Love wants to heal, to rejoice, to pour Itself out on the beloved.  But Love forces itself on no one.

The beloved are you and I.  If we really love Him back, how can we not give Jesus the opportunity to love us through the forgiveness of our sins and the healing of all that afflicts our spirit? How can we refuse to cooperate with Him in making us a saint to live with Him forever?  How can we not make and keep regular appointments with Jesus in the sacrament of Confession?

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Today seems like a perfect day to write about the sacred liturgy from last Sunday.  Jesus healed a palsied man, evangelized the people because he did it in public, and in so doing, painted us an image of who we are as repentant sinners.

About ten years ago we bought Dom Prosper Guéranger’s (1805-1875) The Liturgical Year collection.  Although it was expensive, I’ve never regretted the investment in what is a good resource for understanding the sacred liturgy for each day, especially Sundays.

I try to keep in mind thoughts from the scriptural themes of every Sunday throughout the week so that I may more faithfully walk in the footsteps of Christ.  Of course, I fail, but the words of the sacred liturgy always revive me. This past Sunday was the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost and the Gospel reading is Matt. 9:1-8.

And entering into a boat, he passed over the water and came into his own city.

And behold, they brought to him one sick of the palsy lying in a bed.  And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee.

And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth.

And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?

Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say, Arise, and walk?

But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the man sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house.

And he arose, and went into his house.

And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men.

According to ancient tradition, the Church urges us to distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual (CCC #115), with the spiritual sense subdivided into the allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses. I’ll post on this another time, but you can always grab your Catechism and read more about this now.

Guéranger cracks open the Gospel for us, linking this passage to the sacred priesthood and the meaning of the healing of the palsied man to us sinners.  You can find all three spiritual meanings of the passage in his exegesis.  Also, the more I consider it throughout the week, the more meaning I find.  But to bring you the expert’s writing from volume 11 of The Liturgical Year:

The Gospel (Matt. 23:1-12) which speaks of the scribes and Pharisees who were seated on the chair of Moses has now been appointed for the Tuesday of the second week of Lent.  But the one which is at present given for this Sunday equally directs our thoughts to the consideration of the superhuman powers of the priesthood, which are the common boon of regenerated humanity.

The faithful…are now invited to meditate upon the prerogative which these same men have of forgiving sins and healing souls.  Even if their conduct be in opposition to their teaching [are we not all hypocrites ourselves?], it in nowise interferes with the authority of the sacred chair, from which, for the Church and in her name, they dispense the bread of doctrine to her children.  Moreover, whatever unworthiness may happen to be in the soul of a priest, it does not in the least lessen the power of the keys which have been put into his hands to open heaven and to shut hell.

For it is the Son of Man, Jesus, who, by the priest, be he a saint, or be he a sinner, rids of their sins His brethren and His creatures, whose miseries He has taken upon Himself, and whose crimes He has atoned for by His Blood.

The Healing of the Paralytic, c. 1560-1590, Netherlandish 16th century, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale collection, 1943.7.7

The miracle of the cure of the paralytic [who represents everyman], which gave an occasion to Jesus of declaring His power of forgiving sins inasmuch as he was Son of Man has always been especially dear to the Church….The catacomb frescoes, which have been preserved to the present day [and continue to be discovered], equally attest the predilection for this subject, wherewith she inspired the Christian artists of the first centuries.  From the very beginning of Christianity, heretics had risen up denying that the Church had the power, which her divine Head gave her, of remitting sin.

Such false teaching would irretrievably condemn to spiritual death an immense number of Christians, who, unhappily, had fallen after their Baptism, but who, according to Catholic dogma, might be restored to grace by the sacrament of Penance.

With what energy, then, would our mother the Church defend the remedy which gives life to her children!  She uttered her anathemas upon, and drove from her communion, those Pharisees of the new law, who, like their Jewish predecessors, refused to acknowledge the infinite mercy and universality of the great mystery of the Redemption.

…The outward cure of the paralytic was both the image and the proof of the cure of his soul, which previously had been in a state of moral paralysis; but he himself represented another sufferer, viz., the human race, which for ages had been a victim to the palsy of sin….At once, to the astonishment of the philosophers and skeptics, and to the confusion of hell, the world rose up from its long and deep humiliation; and to prove how thoroughly his strength had been restored to him, he was seen carrying on his shoulders, by the labor of penance and the mastery over his passions, the bed of his old exhaustion and feebleness, on which pride, lust, and covetousness had so long held him.

From that time forward, complying with the word of Jesus, which was also said to him by the Church, he has been going on towards his house, which is heaven, where eternal joy awaits him!

Let us also give thanks to Jesus, whose marvelous dower, which is the Blood He shed for His bride, suffices to satisfy, through all ages, the claims of eternal justice. It was at Easter time that we saw our Lord instituting the great Sacrament, which thus in one instant restores the sinner to life and strength.  But how double wonderful does its power seem, when we see it working in these times of effeminacy and of well-nigh universal ruin!

Iniquity abounds; crimes are multiplied; and yet, the life-restoring pool, kept full by the sacred stream which flows from the open side of our crucified Lord, is ever absorbing and removing, as often as we permit it, and without leaving one single vestige of them, those mountains of sins, those hideous treasures of iniquity which had been amassed, during long years, by the united agency of the devil, the world, and man himself.

Servant of God Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.’s cause for beatification was opened by the diocese of LeMans in December of 2005.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

St. Dominic Adoring the Crucifixion, 1440s, Fra Angelico (b. ca. 1400, Vicchio nell Mugello, d. 1455, Roma), Fresco, Convento di San Marco, Florence

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the effective date for implementation of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, in 2007.  Thanks again, Holy Father, for clarifying that all Catholics who wish to worship according to the 1962 liturgical books have a right to do so and that bishops must facilitate this wherever access difficulties arise.

Today’s meditation in Divine Intimacy was on gratitude.  Father Gabriel writes:

This is our position in regard to God: we have nothing of our own; all that we are and have comes from Him, and in return for His infinite generosity, we can do nothing but use His gifts to express our gratitude to Him.  “In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all” (Thes. 5:18).

Yow.  I needed this reminder.  For the past two weeks I’ve been suffering from awful hives.  Tuesday morning I cancelled my workout at the therapy pool because I woke up around 5:30 with my head, shoulder, arm and legs itching like crazy.  These are not small bumps.  They start small, swell, and expand to cover numerous square inches of skin, even joining one another, until the heat and itch is just awful.  They were not only on my scalp, they were around the edges of my face and on my ears.  I could feel the little devils wanting to spread all over my face and other body parts.  Last week my lower lip swelled like a wiener.  When they get that big, that’s when they become painful, too.

Every 4-5 years these crop up and continue for weeks, necessitating the use of prednisone and anti-histamines along with a sharp change in diet.   No doctor has been able to explain the cause except that they think it is caused by allergies and probably I’m being exposed to too many irritating substances in the air, food, and who knows what all other sources.  So I am not only not normally normal in what I can do, eat and drink, when these strike what has become normal has to be adjusted even further.

hives (urticaria)

St. Paul tells me I must be grateful for this scourge which will last for an unknown amount of time and which can barely be controlled.  Actually, I am grateful.

Thank God for the extra time to read, meditate, and pray since it’s hard to do some of the things I’d like to do.  Thank God for the medicines and herbs that help.  Thank God for another lesson in dependency on Him and self-discipline. Thank God for the chance to suffer in union with His Son on the Cross.  Thank God for a reminder that self-pity is useless and that He’s relieved me before and will do so again when He’s ready.  Thank God for giving me the faith to know that these hives are a gift from Him to make me a better person, and trust that the experience will bring forth good fruit.  After all, these attacks are nothing compared to what Jesus suffered for us.

So now I offer this to Him with a smile even though I don’t feel like rejoicing.  But then, faith, hope, and charity are not about feeling but about our free will conforming ourselves to the will of God.  May this make up for all the times I wasn’t grateful for His gifts, and for those who, like me, forget to be grateful.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

St. Simeon Stylites icon, 1465 A.D., Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

For about 600 years in the early Church, God called certain followers of Christ to be hermits in the north African and Middle East deserts.  St. Simeon Stylites was one of them.  Stylos means pillar in Greek, and stylites is a person supported or standing on a pillar.  Hence his name, Simeon Sytlites.

Today we can hardly imagine what it would be like to fast from food and water in the desert for the forty days of Lent, but St. Simeon did that and more.  The average person would be dead in a week or so.  Most of us can’t imagine being hermits at all, although God is still calling people to this vocation and you can find them in many dioceses in the United States and other countries. The 1983 Code of Canon Law in the Catholic Church provides vows and rules for the eremitic life.

St. Simeon Stylites received extraordinary graces to live the way he did because only God can keep somebody alive under the blazing desert sun, in sweeping dust storms, through cold nights and rain, fasting and praying always.

He was born in northern Syria in 388 where he tended sheep.  Before St. Simeon was sixteen, he joined a monastery but horrified his fellow monks with his extreme asceticism. He quit the monastery and went to live in the wilderness where eventually he took up life at the top of a pillar adoring and praising God day and night.

Column Remains of St Simeon The Stylite topped with boulder, Syria, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

As happened with many of the desert hermits, people flocked from miles around to ask for guidance to live in a holy way. St. Simeon prayed, preached to the crowds that came, wrote letters we still have today, and advised his disciples from the top of his pillar which was always exposed to the weather.

Although his manner of living seems extreme, God is teaching us a lesson: no matter how unusual a person’s calling is, we cannot judge God’s work in their heart. We should never interfere with someone’s vocation or criticize his path, especially when the person is under spiritual direction.  God has a special job for each of us individually, a job He prepares us for often over many years without us realizing it. We can imitate St. Simeon Stylites by seeking God alone in all that we do.

If you’ve ever felt that you were banging your head against the wall with regard to your spiritual life, it means you are trying to do it all yourself rather than letting God lead you as St. Simeon let God lead him. Stop.  Climb the spiritual pillar in front of you and get away from the incessant demands pressuring you.  Be silent and contemplate the Lord.  He is with you and will never leave you.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Ash Wednesday is coming.  Are you agonizing over what to do for your soul during Lent? Every year I struggle with this, but today I read Father Tom Euteneuer’s Don’t Waste Lent post over at Human Life International and the Gordion Knot untangled. He said:

…stay simple; that is, don’t load yourself down with too many spiritual exercises or intentions that may discourage you if you run too fast out into the desert.

Good advice for a perfectionist like me!  For people under stress and struggling with various mental or physical health issues, simplification of life is essential.  If we focus on one new good habit to acquire during Lent we will have done more for our soul than if we had five or six penances we failed to do well.

I have 10 books to recommend for those who want to spend some minutes each day doing spiritual reading for Lent. They are great for a journey with the Lord into the desert – books for renewing the soul and enlarging the Christian heart.  Any of them would make a good Lenten companion.

1.  Holy Thursday: An Intimate Remembrance Francois Mauriac is known for the deep spiritual insight of his novels.  In this book, not a novel, he carries you to the table of the Last Supper and from there to the tabernacle.

2. The Passion of Jesus and Its Hidden Meaning This book by Father James Groenings, S.J. has been through many printings since it first came out in 1900.  Discover many lessons of the Passion you never dreamed were there, including those of the seven last words.

3. The Art of Praying: The Principles and Methods of Christian Prayer The great Father Romano Guardini was a noted philosopher, theologian, and spiritual director of the 20th century.  Here he teaches modern man to pray with greater depth in simple, practical ways.

4. The Plaints of the Passion,: Meditations on the Reproaches of the Good Friday Liturgy Father Jude Mead gives us beautiful meditations on the Reproaches of Good Friday.  It is sad that so many parishes do not use the Reproaches in their Good Friday liturgy because they are strong impetus towards true contrition.  The Extraordinary Form of the liturgy always has the Reproaches so if you can get to a Traditional Latin Mass nearby you will see what the Church celebrated for 1500 years.

5.  The Sadness of Christ (Yale University Press Translation) This great book by the great layman, St. Thomas More, teaches alertness and patience in the Christian life.  Written in the Tower of London while awaiting execution, it is his last work.  As he faced death, he left us a testament of resolve and courage drawn from the Scriptures.

6.  The School of Jesus Crucified: The Lessons of Calvary in Daily Catholic Life The Passionist priest, Father Ignatius of the Side of Jesus, gives us 31 daily meditations on the Passion and nine spiritual exercises.  You can use this book every day of the year if you have a special devotion to the Passion of Christ.

7. Sermons of The Cure of Ars St. John Vianney is the patron saint of priests perhaps because he was such an excellent pastor.  He confronts and probes the various rationalizations we have for sinning and addresses the following topics among others: Be Religious or Be Damned, Do You Want to Be Happy?, Repairing the Wrong Done, The Duties of Parents, The Sewer of Hell.  He was well known for walking in the forest, falling on his knees and weeping to God for the souls of his flock.  People came from great distances to confess their sins and obtain spiritual advice.

8. Spiritual Combat: How to Win Your Spiritual Battles and Attain Peace This famous classic by Father Lorenzo Scupoli was first published in 1589 and was a favorite book of St. Francis de Sales.  It contains 66 short chapters on how to grow in holiness and combat concupiscence.

9. What Jesus Saw from the Cross Father A. G. Sertillanges lived in Jerusalem and spent many days walking the streets where Jesus walked.  It brings new insight into the Passion of Christ, taking us back 2000 years.  One of my favorite books.

10. Praying With Icons This book opens our hearts to the treasure of our Eastern Catholic heritage.  Pope John Paul II spoke of the two “lungs” of the Church as necessary for her breathing.  The Orthodox are separated from us, but they share the same spiritual heritage as our Eastern brethren.  Jim Forest is an Orthodox layman who writes of icons as the aid to prayer and contemplation they are, not just art.  I included this book for Lent because of the importance of icons and sacred images to those whose health makes reading difficult but who may find prayer much easier by gazing at an icon.

You can use these books for yourself or as part of family prayer.  Home schoolers may find them a springboard to activities or projects when covering religious subjects.  Besides the links here, all are available in my Amazon store.  Have a joyful Lent in the peace of Christ in the desert.

Logic says that if we avoid bad company, we ought to seek out good company.  If we avoid the near occasions of sin, we ought to seek out occasions to practice virtue and live up to the two Great Commandments.

When we are ill, in mourning, or otherwise suffering great trials, we may not feel like having company at all.  But these are just the ideal times when we can invite into our hearts the members of the Church Triumphant who now see the face of God, to consider and imitate their virtues in the privacy of our souls so that we may join them one day in heaven.

Spain produced many great saints in the 1500s and St. Peter of Alcantara was one.  As a youth he entered a convent of Discalced (barefoot) Franciscans to do penance and suffer for the sins of the world.  At the age of forty, he founded the first convent of the “Strict Observance”, living an even more severe lifestyle and inspiring many to follow him.  St. Peter was known to be a great preacher and a learned man, bringing many young people to vocations in religious life and the priesthood.  He was spiritual director to St. Teresa of Avila, now a Doctor of the Church, encouraging her in the reformation of the Carmelites. She likewise encouraged him.

The mutual encouragement St. Teresa and St. Peter gave one another is a good example of keeping good company.  The time spent in pursuing holy discourse was an occasion to practice virtue. 

We do not have to leave behind us great accomplishments as these saints did in order to get to heaven.  We only need to imitate their commitment to fulfilling the will of God for us.  He always gave them the grace to do what He asked no matter how difficult the circumstances – and these two endured prodigious difficulties.  He will do the same for us.  All we have to do is say is “Yes” to Him and with His grace, we can endure anything.  Suffering becomes the occasion to practice virtue and be blessed by God. 

St. Peter of Alcantara died at age sixty-three in 1562.  October 19th is his feast in the 1962 liturgical calendar.