Suffering With Joy

Sabbath Moments

July 30, 2010

On Saturdays we join Colleen at Thoughts on Grace to share those moments we rested quietly in God. Sometimes I may not be resting physically, but I am with God.  My Sabbath Moments for this week:

First, the asparagus beans have been producing prolifically and every morning I collect the ripe ones.  The next step is to chop them in lengths suitable for steaming and freezing or cooking fresh.  As I was chopping the beans at the counter, I thought of how lovingly Our Lady must have prepared food for her family and that she probably shared with neighbors or those less fortunate than she.

These ideas led me to search for information on how people lived in Nazareth and I found some interesting facts about the manner of living, the houses, clothing, agriculture, politics, etc. in the article: Life of Jesus – First Century Context of Palestine (Israel).  Outside of the fact that the article makes the erroneous claim that Mary and Joseph had other children after Jesus, it gave me enough information to imagine well how Mary’s typical day went. I spend many lovely Sabbath Moments researching things like this which help me in my meditations which are also Sabbath Moments.

Second, thanks to a dear friend, I had some great quiet time reading Our Lady of Kibeho, which I reviewed and commented on.  This is an inspiring story, but a very sad one, too, because just as people did not heed her calls for repentance and sacrifice at Fatima and the world was thrown into yet another terrible war, neither did the Rwandans heed Mary and Jesus who urged conversion of heart. A million people died in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 while the world shrugged its shoulders and the UN “peacekeeping forces” didn’t keep the peace.

I remember being appalled at the slaughter and wondered how people could do such terrible things to their very neighbors.  It was as if an entire nation became possessed by the devil, going about in a blind rage screaming and hacking and slicing whoever came into their paths for 100 days of hell.  I wonder if we will soon see the same here.

Does it seem to you that enough people are in love with the truth (I am the Way, the Truth and the Life) or are most people in love with their own limited definitions of truth? Most of us cannot do big things to resolve the evils in this world, but we can do many little things every day, conforming ourselves to the will of God, transforming the ordinary into the invisible extraordinary. What looks like somebody chopping beans is really somebody loving God and neighbor the best she can at that moment.  Thank you Blessed Mother, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Josemaria Escriva for your example!

Tags: conversion

Our Lady of Kibeho

July 29, 2010

Our Lady of Kibeho

This week a friend sent me the book, Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa.  As a little girl I was entranced by the apparitions of Fatima and Lourdes and the reminders the Blessed Virgin gave to all men to repent and do penance so that many souls would be saved.  In recent years I learned that Jesus sent His mother to Akita, Japan with similar messages in the 1970s, but only in the last few years did I hear of Our Lady of Kibeho.

What makes Kibeho so appealing is that Our Lady came to one of the poorest countries in the heart of Africa to open hearts to Jesus. As in Fatima and Lourdes, she chose young people to convey urgent messages to the people, to government officials, and to the bishops – messages urging Rwandans to end the ethnic hatred in their country, to repent of their sins, and to make Jesus the center of their lives.  These messages were meant not only for Rwanda but for the whole world.  Jesus and Mary told the visionaries that they came to Rwanda to let all the people know that even the poorest of the poor in the world were in their hearts.

Eight of the visionaries have been declared by the Church to be authentic, but during the years between 1982 and 1994 many people in remote villages throughout the country claimed to have seen both Jesus and Our Lady.  It is likely that these appearances were authentic in many cases.  The bishops just did not have the manpower to examine all of them and so stopped with the eight visionaries.  Not all the people who saw them were Catholic or even Christian.  One illiterate young man (one of the eight authenticated) was pagan and so were his parents.  Yet Jesus came to him personally and taught him the complete Bible and infused deep theological knowledge in his heart, sending him throughout all Rwanda to spread the Gospel.

One striking fact reported by the visionaries was that Our Lady’s skin glowed with such a light they could not tell if it was white or black.  Some of them were taken to see both heaven and hell.  And, as at Fatima and Lourdes, Our Lady asked for daily praying of the rosary, the prayers that bring the Gospel alive in our minds every time we meditate on the mysteries.  She also taught one of the visionaries the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, an old devotion in the Church but unknown in Africa and asked that she spread this devotion to everyone.  The Blessed Virgin also asked that a basilica in her honor be built in Kibeho, and the people also built a small chapel of the Seven Sorrows there.

Even as Our Lady warned the people that Rwanda would become a “river of blood” if the hatred of the people was not quickly stopped, miracle after miracle occurred in Kibeho amongst the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who flocked to this remote village.  Sadly, neither the government officials nor the people repented of the hatred, and the prophetic warnings came true during 100 horrifying days of mass murder and genocide.  Rwanda in 1994 was awash in blood amongst unspeakable suffering.

Nineteen-eighty-two was not that long ago, nor was 1994.  Is there less hatred in the world today or more?  How can man be so stubborn that even in the face of major miracles and stark evidence of God’s love in this day and time, that he will not excise evil from his heart?  What horrors will be visited upon this world as we continue to lie, cheat, steal and murder one another?  It was not a lack of grace from heaven to change hearts that brought about the slaughter in Rwanda.  It was man’s hardening against the grace and stubborn refusal to accept the grace available to everyone.  Let Kibeho speak to us today and let us heed the messages by daily conversion of heart.

Our Lady of Kibeho was written by Immaculée Ilibagiza who survived the Rwandan genocide and lived in hiding for several years afterwards.  She is well acquainted with the apparitions and several of the visionaries. I have put this book in my Custom Shop, or you can click on the links in this post to purchase it from Amazon.

Tags: Blessed Virgin, conversion

Seeking God’s Will

July 23, 2010

Over the past couple of months I’ve been thinking of a dear friend, Father Philip Schuster, O.S.B., one of the monks murdered at Conception Abbey on June 10, 2002 by a gunman whose motives will forever remain unknown as he had no connection to any of the monks nor to the abbey and left nothing in spoken word or writing to say why he did it.

Lloyd Robert Jeffress got in his car with an AK 47 and a .22 caliber sawed off rifle and drove a couple of hours from Kansas City to Conception, Missouri to execute as many monks as he could find. Father Philip, age 84 and monastery porter, was shot in the torso and finished off with a shot to the head after he fell.  The bullet hole remains in the hallway floor.  Brother Damian, known as “the weather monk” was also killed.  Two other monks who entered the hallway from their offices were shot, gravely wounded, and recovered after a long time.  When Jeffress couldn’t find anybody else to shoot, he went back down the hall and through the same door to the basilica he had used to enter the monastery, and killed himself.  In the midst of mourning the Abbot re-consecrated the basilica the next day.

I made a some private retreats at the abbey with Father Philip and visited him there with my husband on our way north to see friends.  He had been the novice master of my pastor and he was just the person I needed at that time of my life.  On one of my visits, he gave me a copy of the book he wrote, Seeking God’s Will Through Faith, Hope & Charity, full of the simple wisdom about life only a very prayerful monk with vast pastoral experience could write.

Father Philip was everything a priest should be and solid as a rock theologically.  He set a good example for me in the spiritual life and I often think of things he said in our conferences.  One typical exchange between us happened when I was sitting in his porter’s office and we were discussing the rosary.  Father pulled an old, really old broken rosary out of his breast pocket (it came from a monk who died in 1927 and I have one just like it from the same monk) and waving it in the air said, “I love praying the rosary.  I don’t worry about getting all the prayers in.  Sometimes I just get a good meditation on the mystery and don’t worry about finishing every decade.” In other words, keep to the purpose of what you’re doing and don’t sweat the small stuff. Of the monk who blessed our rosaries so long ago he said, “Father Lucas hung every indulgence under the sun on these rosaries. I don’t mind that it’s broken.  Our Lady doesn’t mind if we pray on broken rosaries.”And Father Philip prayed on his so much he plumb wore it out.

If you boiled down the essence of Father Philip, it would be simplicity and faithfulness in conforming ourselves to God’s will.  He was kind and gentle, but very firm about obeying God’s laws.  He was utterly faithful to his monastic vows and using that old, broken rosary was a perfect example of his approach to the vow of poverty.  He clearly knew what was important and what was not.

Because life itself is threatened with such great intensity from so many sides these days, and peace of soul can be elusive for the person in the world, I decided to read a little of Father Philip’s book again every day and share some passages with you here.  This is a great book that never gets boring no matter how many times you read it. Father Philip was a gift from God to all, but especially to the tortured soul who needs to learn to suffer with joy, and I’m sure he brought many to God.  He lived what he wrote.

From Chapter Two: Faith:

“He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Rom. 1: 17).  In an age when personal freedom is so much stressed, it seems helpful and necessary to try to clarify our notion of faith.

Many of us were born into a Christian family.  Many of us, especially Catholics, were baptized as infants, or when we were very young.  I do not wish to see this practice changed.  I agree with it.  But it does have at least one danger.  We are prone to think that faith, like love, comes easily, naturally, without real effort on our part.  We assume that anyone who professes to be Catholic, and who goes to church, has a deep faith.  I challenge that notion.

It is true that when the child receives the sacrament of baptism, the virtue of faith is implanted in the soul, like a seed.  Whatever else that virtue may be at the time of baptism, it is an inclination, a force, that inclines us, helps us, gives us the attitude of one ready to believe, ready to be taught by God, relying simply on His wisdom, His fidelity, His goodness.  Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

“Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.”  Wherever lies or deception of any kind exists, there is Satan who is the clever master of re-direction and re-definition. We see and hear this every day in the news media.  Something is forever being presented as something it is not and people rely on these deceptions to justify the unjustifiable. A fair question to ask is, am I ready to be taught by God, or do I habitually look elsewhere to be told what I want to hear?

Tags: Catholic Church, conversion, suffering

The Pope of Hope

June 8, 2010

Many Catholics were happy to see the great attraction so many young people had to Pope John Paul II – an encouraging sign for the future of the Church.  I will never forget the large, grieving crowds spilling out of St. Peter’s Square when he died, and the joy of so many young seminarians and other young people when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected a couple of days later. Now Papa Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI draws larger crowds of young people than Pope John Paul II.  What is it about this Pope that is so attractive to the young?

Perhaps it is his ability to connect with people in simplicity and humility, or it is that he so capably and strongly becomes not only the alter Christus but also the bridge (pontiff) to the Wholly Other our hearts yearn for when he celebrates the sacred liturgy. Then again, it may be that he speaks the hard truths of the Faith with such gentleness, like the loving father he is to all of humanity.

On his recent visit to Malta Pope Benedict addressed a crowd of 10,000 young people at the Port of Valletta speaking of the moral law, not ordinarily a popular subject.  He calls them to conversion, to make the hard choices in this world:

Maybe some of you will say to me, St. Paul is often severe in his writings.  How can I say that he was spreading a message of love?  My answer is this.  God loves every one of us with a depth and intensity that we can hardly begin to imagine. And He knows us intimately, He knows all our strengths and all our faults.  Because He loves us so much, He wants to purify us of our faults and build up our virtues so that we can have life in abundance. When He challenges us because something in our lives is displeasing to Him, He is not rejecting us, but He is asking us to change and become more perfect. That is what He asked of St. Paul on the road to Damascus.  God rejects no one.  Yet in His great love, God challenges all of us to change and to become more perfect…

Here in Malta, you live in a society that is steeped in Christian faith and values.  You should be proud that your country both defends the unborn and promotes stable family life by saying no to abortion and divorce.  I urge you to maintain this courageous witness to the sanctity of life and the centrality of marriage and family life for a healthy society. In Malta and Gozo, families know how to value and care for their elderly and infirm members, and they welcome children as gifts from God.  Other nations can learn from your Christian example.

The country of Malta is now under siege by the European Union which wants this island nation to allow divorce, abortion, and homosexual “marriage”. Thus the Pope’s words to the young are especially important.  Western materialism is slowly chipping away at the Christian foundations of Malta, which can be viewed as one of the few nations left maintaining a viable Catholic culture.

So much of Pope Benedict’s talks address the issues of life vs. death, of living open to God’s will, of accepting the purification God chooses for each of us to build on what He has given us in our talents and personalities.  One cannot hear him without becoming completely conscious of the value of every human being, no matter their circumstances.  He is the Pope of Hope.

Tags: conversion

Salvation Is From the Jews: Book Review

May 12, 2010

Salvation Is from the Jews: The Role of Judaism in Salvation History by Roy H. Shoeman

This is not a new book, having been published by Ignatius Press in 2003, but it is well worth reading if you have an interest in the conversion of Jews and understanding better today’s scourge of Islam. Shoeman tells his own conversion story in the process of covering the role of Judaism in salvation history from Abraham to the Second Coming.

Because of his background in Hebrew, having studied with noteworthy rabbis of American Judaism, Shoeman sheds light on certain Biblical passages that show how the Jews have a central place in the destiny of the world and the fulfillment of the Messianic prophesies. He covers the Holocaust from a spiritual standpoint and includes writings of St. Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).  He also links Our Lady of Fatima with the conversion of the Jews and explains the role of the Jews in the Second Coming. Of particular interest is his explanation of the anti-Christian roots of Nazi anti-Semitism and its links to Arab anti-Semitism.

Shoeman gives an excellent explanation of why Jews do not have to renounce their “Jewishness” to enter the Catholic Church.  For them, it is full acceptance of the Messianic prophesies and the Word.  It is, as it were, a completion of the past rather than a severing with it. If you know any Jews who may be interested in Christianity, this is a good book to give them.

One thing I especially liked about Salvation Is From the Jews was learning about Jewish scholarship, the Talmud, Torah, and the great Maimonides’ writings about the coming of the Messiah. The better we understand the Bible the better Christians we will be and this book helped me to do just that.  I found myself re-reading certain passages of the book and meditating on God’s generosity to man.  Also, the book explains the role of Islam in God’s plan.

One of the more important saints of the twentieth century for westerners is St. Edith Stein.  If you would like to read some excerpts of her writings contained in this book, visit my blog post, Judaism and the Holocaust.  If you want to order the book you can do it from here.  It is in Barb’s Custom Shop as well.  I highly recommend this book not only for increasing understanding of the Scriptures, but also for understanding the present state of world affairs as it relates to Islam and Judaism. It’s never too late to read a good book, even one that has been around for a few years.

Tags: conversion

“A Song for Nagasaki” by Paul Glynn, S.M.

February 26, 2010

Dr. Takashi Nagai

Last Sunday I found a book at the church library.  It wasn’t on my top ten for Lent, but it was about Japan and a Japanese holy man who transformed others’ lives by his gentleness and forgiveness. Since I am interested in Japanese history, especially in what transpired to cause the terrible aggression that drew so many into World War II, I checked it out.  What I ended up with is a moving conversion story that brings Christ’s teachings to life in a unique way and that has enriched my Lenten prayer.

A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai-Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb tells of Dr. Paul Takashi Nagai, an extraordinary man raised in the rural area of Mitoya according to the teachings of Confucius and the Shinto religion which imbued him with filial reverence for ancestors and heroic stoicism.  His mother and father taught him a love of learning by their example, and generous giving by their care for the medical needs of the peasants and townspeople often without payment.

Nagai entered into a spiritual quest while he attended medical school in Nagasaki – a quest that led him from Shintoism to atheism to Catholicism and ultimately to marriage with the daughter of the family which had been at the heart of the underground Church for the centuries of government persecution of Christians.  The biography reveals how Nagai’s medical studies, service as a medic in the Japanese army during the occupation of Manchuria, and his return to become a pioneer of radiology research at Nagasaki University formed his spiritual growth.

Before the bomb exploded over the city that fateful August day, Nagai already had developed leukemia from his radiation exposure, yet he had refused to quit working.  The cancer did not stop him from caring for victims of the inferno although he was wounded himself, and to his surprise and that of his fellow medical practitioners, his disease went into remission for a couple of years because of his exposure to the bomb’s radiation.

Nyoko-do

Nagai lost his beloved wife in the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9^th, 1945, but his children who were farther from ground zero survived.  Not long after, he moved into the rubble of the ruined city to study the effects of radiation on all life forms, constructing a tiny dwelling on the ground where his house once stood.  He called his little abode “Nyoko-do“, meaning “as yourself hall” taken from Jesus’s words: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  It was one 6×6 room with a porch built by friends.  He lived there with his children until he died.

Throughout the book Glynn interweaves Japanese history and customs into Nagai’s story, giving the reader a good understanding of the depth of this man.  He describes well how Nagai brought not only physical healing but spiritual healing to the suffering and war-weary people.  Determined not to be bitter or vengeful, he wrote articles and powerful books as a legacy for his children that became best-sellers throughout Japan.  During the last four years of his life, he accomplished this lying on his back because of weakness and abdominal swelling caused by the cancer.

This book above all, is a story of love and forgiveness, of sanctity brought forth from horror. Many people from around the world, including Helen Keller journeyed to meet this unassuming man, who gave most of his earnings for the education and care of war orphans. His example continues to inspire and he is considered a saint by many Japanese people of all faiths.

If you are attracted to conversion stories, this book will not disappoint you.  It is filled with the wonders of God’s grace and inspiration to overcome all bitterness, resentment, and desire for vengeance that plague the human heart.  Nagai truly suffered with joy.

Tags: conversion, joy, suffering

The History of Ash Wednesday

February 16, 2010

“Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.”  These sobering words based on Genesis 3: 19 are a call to conversion shrouded in the mists of ancient time.  As with many Christian observances, Ash Wednesday as we know it today is an organic development of Old Testament practices.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jonah, Judith, Job and Maccabees all speak of the use of sackcloth and ashes as a penitential act to invoke God’s mercy.

Although the Old Testament is rich in its reference to the use of ashes, only a few written records exist from the first millennia of the Church to tell us of the evolution of this first signpost on the journey through Lent.  We do know from the early Church Fathers that if a Christian committed a serious sin, he had to confess first and then was given a sackcloth garment and his head sprinkled with ashes.  He was required to remain in this state for some period of time and then was reconciled with the rest of the Christian community by the bishop.

From these beginnings the practice of using ashes as a penitential symbol grew into more formal use throughout the Church.  By the sixth century the Spanish-Mozarabic rite called for signing the foreheads of penitents with ashes before admitting a gravely ill person to the Order of Penitents.  The Order of Penitents were those whose sins were so grave they were required to do public penance starting on the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent and ending with re-admittance to the community on Holy Thursday.  This is the first historical indication we have that what we know today as “Ash Wednesday” was a regular observance for at least part of the Church.

As the piety of penitence and mourning for sin grew, so did the formal liturgical rites for Lent. The name “dies cinerum” (Day of Ashes) is the first record of the formal name for Ash Wednesday and appears in the Gregorian Sacramentary ritual book dating from sometime in the eighth century. In the Romano-Germanic Pontifical of 960 we find a full-fledged ceremony for ash sprinkling on this day.

By the eleventh century, the practice of public penance began to fall into disuse but Ash Wednesday began to take on a wider significance for all. Abbot Aelfric (955-1020) of Eynsham wrote that the faithful took part in a ceremony involving the imposition of ashes on the Wednesday before Lent.  After the Synod of Beneventum in 1091 Pope Urban II established the use of ashes on that day for all Catholics everywhere.

As the evolution of the Ash Wednesday liturgy continued, new ceremonials came to be. Using blessed palms and olive branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration as the source for ashes began in the 12^th century. Today in many parishes people bring their blessed palms to be burned for the ashes in a ritual observance.

The celebration of Ash Wednesday in the twenty-first century in the Catholic Church is a combination of ancient prayers and rituals, assimilation of newer rituals like the congregational participation in the burning of palms, and a post-1965 recovery of the baptismal focus of Lent.  At baptism the Christian promises to reject sin and profess the Gospel.  Ash Wednesday is the start of the conversion journey made time and again by the baptized.  It also is a solemn reminder that all will die yet a joyous reminder that in death, with a life of conversion, heaven awaits.

And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive…So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. (1 Cor. 15: 22, 42-43)

A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us…But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth: and some indeed unto honour, but some unto dishonour.  If any man therefore shall cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and profitable to the Lord, prepared unto every good work.  But flee thou youthful desires, and pursue justice, faith, charity, and peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim. 2: 11-12, 20-22)

Tags: Catholic Church, conversion

Friday Lauds and God’s Snowy Blessing

January 29, 2010

Snow-covered honeysuckle in our back yard

Friday’s hour of Lauds, meaning “praise”, in the Divine Office celebrates deliverance from the Babylonian captivity in Psalm 147 (147 B) and Jerusalem’s God-given privilege.  In a short verse from Romans following the psalms we receive an instruction about how to live in this deliverance.

As I looked out the window watching the snow falling, I thought that although it is cold and gray outside, how perfect is this time to praise with the psalmist the power and glory of God.  So after I finished morning prayers I stumbled out into the gently falling snow and took a few pictures to share along with this  psalm.

Psalm 147

Glorify the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Sion.

For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you.

He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat He fills you.  He sends forth his command to the earth; swiftly runs His word!

He spreads snow like wool; frost He strews like ashes.

He scatters His hail like crumbs; before His cold the waters freeze.

He sends His word and melts them; He lets His breeze blow and the waters run.  He has proclaimed His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.

He has not done thus for any other nation; His ordinances He has not made known to them.  Alleluia.

"He spreads snow like wool..."

Looking at the allegorical meaning of these scriptures, after the winter of sin comes the springtime of salvation.  Beneath the snow lies the promise of new life – Redemption.  The all-powerful Father sends His Word to melt the cold of our hearts, bringing us the warmth of spiritual peace, joy and prosperity. He fills us with the best of wheat – the Holy Eucharist and the graces It brings.

With His commandments and His blessings (the Beatitudes), He strengthens the bars of the gates of our hearts against Satan and the world. He shows us how to live as people redeemed, laying aside the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, walking becomingly as in the day (Rom. 13:12-13).  We are a privileged people (“praise your God, O Sion…He has not done thus for any other nation”) with an obligation of lighting the way for those still in winter who do not yet know him or who have fallen away.

Tags: Catholic Church, conversion, psalms

Finally, a Tighter Directive from Catholic Bishops on End-of-Life Care

January 4, 2010

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote its usual one-sided whine in covering a November 17th mandate from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide nutrition, hydration, and medication to patients who are in a “presumably irreversible conditions … who can reasonably be expected to live indefinitely if given such care.”

The bishops voted to revise the guide,  Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, at their November general assembly in Baltimore.  The bishops’ previous guide predated Pope John Paul II’s 2004 address to the International Congress on “Life- Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” and the August 2007 Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration issued by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

All Catholic health care institutions and workers have been notified of the new mandate.  Whether any will attempt to get around it remains to be seen, but predictably, Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, which advocates for the right of terminally ill patients to make life-or-death decisions is making false accusations about the mandate without, apparently, having read it.  She claims that these directives are in conflict with legal instructions from patients or their families and will apply to everyone.  The answer to the first is “Maybe”, to the second, “No.” The work-around stated as hospital policy, that someone or their surrogate who insists on starving and dehydrating the patient to death will be moved to another institution is not acceptable. Not surprising from someone who is in the business of killing.

However, Lori Dangberg, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Catholic Health Care, which represents California’s 55 Catholic hospitals made a disturbing statement.  She is quoted in the article as saying that if a situation was unresolvable, the hospitals would find some other way to accommodate the person.  How do you find a moral way of accommodating a person who wants to commit suicide or a family that wants to murder a member?  What about the fifth commandment do people not understand?

The bishops wrote:

The moral teachings that we profess here flow principally from the natural law, understood in the light of the revelation Christ has entrusted to his Church. From this source the Church has derived its understanding of the nature of the human person, of human acts, and of the goals that shape human activity…

28. Each person or the person’s surrogate should have access to medical and moral information and counseling so as to be able to form his or her conscience. The free and informed health care decision of the person or the person’s surrogate is to be followed so long as it does not contradict Catholic principles…

The Church’s teaching authority has addressed the moral issues concerning medically assisted nutrition and hydration. We are guided on this issue by Catholic teaching against euthanasia, which is “an action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death, in order that all suffering may in this way be eliminated.”[38] While medically assisted nutrition and hydration are not morally obligatory in certain cases, these forms of basic care should in principle be provided to all patients who need them, including patients diagnosed as being in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS), because even the most severely debilitated and helpless patient retains the full dignity of a human person and must receive ordinary and proportionate care…

58. In principle, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally. This obligation extends to patients in chronic and presumably irreversible conditions (e.g., the “persistent vegetative state”) who can reasonably be expected to live indefinitely if given such care.40 Medically assisted nutrition and hydration become morally optional when they cannot reasonably be expected to prolong life or when they would be “excessively burdensome for the patient or [would] cause significant physical discomfort, for example resulting from complications in the use of the means employed.”[41] For instance, as a patient draws close to inevitable death from an underlying progressive and fatal condition, certain measures to provide nutrition and hydration may become excessively burdensome and therefore not obligatory in light of their very limited ability to prolong life or provide comfort.

59. The free and informed judgment made by a competent adult patient concerning the use or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures should always be respected and normally complied with, unless it is contrary to Catholic moral teaching.

37. See Declaration on Euthanasia.
38. Ibid., Part II.

40. See Pope John Paul II, Address to the Participants in the International Congress on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” (March 20, 2004), no. 4, where he emphasized that “the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act.” See also Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration” (August 1, 2007).

41. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Commentary on “Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration.”

The new mandate is a much better document, emphasizing the importance of a properly formed conscience, compassionate about families faced with tough decisions, and clear on Catholic moral teaching. However, a key piece to the puzzle concerning implementation is the elephant in the living room: lack of catechesis on end-of-life issues at the parish and diocesan level.  Some Catholics are very fortunate to have bishops who are vocal about pro-life issues and publish steady, authentic teaching in their diocesan media.  But the priest has to stand up in the pulpit and tell the entire congregation what the Church teaches and why on these issues and do it often because of the pro-death atmosphere we breathe every day.

Support at the parish level for families in troubling circumstances is also a necessity.  Everywhere we must have a loving and caring approach to help people realize that what seems to be the greatest calamity is instead a gift from God and murder has no place in the heart of the Christian.

The Chronicle’s so-called journalism contained no quotes from Catholic medical personnel nor Catholic institutions who view this mandate as a boon and why.  Nor did they present any quotes from pastors who support the mandate and how the mandate helps people deal more peacefully with end-of-life decisions. Clearly, from the article, it appears that this is another “bash the big, bad bishops” slant.

Click on the links provided above to read the article and to read the bishops’ document.  You can order the document from the USCCB publications page on line.

Please join me in my nine month rosary novena for our country and conversion of those who are pro-death.

Tags: Catholic bishops, conversion, end-of-life, pro-life, rosary

A Rosary for Our Country

Today I prayed an extra rosary that our nation be delivered from the pro-death powers governing our country.  Over the past few days my mind has seen hordes of dead – not just babies, but disabled people of all ages and the elderly.  The implications for life if Congress passes any form of the health care bill they are wrangling over are dim, dim, dim. It’s not only abortion, it’s the denying of livelihood to so many Americans through policies that pander to special interest groups. Terrible poverty, anarchy, and despotism with the attendant cruelty of such a world is all too close.  It’s all a continuum. A demonic darkness pervades this country at every level of government, but especially Capitol Hill.  If we lose our moral authority through pro-death laws, we can no longer offer hope to the suffering elsewhere on this planet.

This morning, I understood that I was to devote more prayer and sacrifice to our country’s situation.  Since today is Friday, I took the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary to Our Lady and asked her to crush the head of Satan – to put the screeching demons to flight.  I cannot go out to demonstrate anymore, I have written letters, sent emails, and done what I can from the temporal angle.  Now what is left is penance and prayer.

Agony in the Garden, 1465, Donatello, bronze, Church of San Lorenzo, Florence

Agony in the Garden: Dear Mother Mary, Jesus suffered a terrible agony in Gethsemane with no one beside Him except the angels.  He knew the pharisees were out to kill Him.  He sweat blood for us.  We are your children.  Please Mother Mary, do not let the demons of hell continue to inspire the evil directed at America through the power-drunk politicians who seek to destroy the nation and make it into something it was never founded to be.  Obtain from your Son, Jesus, the great graces necessary to convert their hearts and waken to the love of God.

Scourging at the Pillar: Dear Mother Mary, Jesus was scourged almost to death while the sadistic Roman guards laughed and the Pharisees and High Priests gloated.  His blood was poured out everywhere.  Please, dear Mother Mary, gather your children, we the brothers and sisters of Jesus, and ask your loving Son to stay the hands of those who would have our blood and our livelihood. Obtain from your Son, Jesus, the great graces necessary to convert their hearts and waken to the love of God.

Crown of Thorns, c. 1510, Cranach, Lucas the Elder, oil on lime panel, private collection

Crowning with Thorns: Dear Mother Mary, with a cruelty beneath that of the animal kingdom and worthy only of the hateful demons of hell, the Roman guards pressed a crown of sharpest thorns into the head of your Son and our Brother.  They shoved a reed into His hand and threw a red cloak about Him while mocking His Kingship.  Please, Mother Mary, we are your sons and daughters, too.  Ask our dear Jesus to stay the hands and tongues of those who mock life and the dignity of all man with their plans to strike down the poor and helpless and continue the genocide of races. Obtain from your Son, Jesus, the great graces necessary to convert their hearts and waken to the love of God.

Carrying of the Cross: Dear Mother Mary, you followed Jesus as he carried his heavy cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha. You saw the people curse and spit on Him.  You saw the soldiers beat Him when He fell.  You saw little mercy toward Him except for Veronica.  Please, Mother Mary, for the sake of the suffering of your Divine Son, ask dear Jesus to give His followers the strength to remain on the narrow path of life and to defeat the demonic forces that would go against the natural law of God. Plead with Him to stay the hands that would lay burdens upon our backs so heavy that we will fail under their load. Obtain from your Son, Jesus, the great graces necessary to convert their hearts and waken to the love of God.

Crucifixion, 1503, Cranach, Lucas the Elder, pine panel, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord: Dear Mother Mary, you saw and heard it all – the hammering of the nails, the thump and jolt of the cross as it sank into its hole.  You saw the soldiers gambling to win your Son’s clothes.  You heard the mocking of the crowd and more gloating from the Scribes and Pharisees. You heard him cry out from the Cross.  You accepted us as your children when He gave you to us as our Mother before He died.  Please, Mother Mary, ask your Son, Jesus, to come to our aid in this time when so many lives are threatened by the greedy and pompous who live by the dictatorship of relativity.  Plead with Him to stay the hands of those who would have us die because they believe we are unworthy of life.  Obtain from your Son, Jesus, the great graces necessary to convert their hearts and waken to the love of God.

Tags: Blessed Virgin, conversion, moral authority, pro-life

Jihad at Fort Hood

My condolences to the families of the fallen, and heartfelt prayers for all who died or who were wounded in the Jihad at Ft. Hood this week.  Here’s a first hand account a doctor wrote of how the emergency was handled by the medical staff and the local hospitals.  Very inspiring.  God bless our troups.  We can be so proud of them.  Now the military needs to look into better ways to protect our soldiers from within their own ranks.

The culture of death is more than abortion, euthanasia, and life styles that lead to bad ends.  It is also about religions that advocate killing those who oppose their faith and religions that enslave people.  Islam is not and never has been a religion of peace.  A web site I recommend to people interested in hearing from former Muslims is FaithFreedom.org.  They have an article posted by the title: Massacre by Political Correctness.”  Well worth the read.

If ever there were a time in the history of the world where an army of quiet penitents is needed to offer up all the pain and suffering God asks of them in union with the Sacrifice of the Cross, redemptive suffering, it is now.  Pray for the conversion of Muslims to Jesus.

Tags: conversion, suffering

He Made Us; His We Are

“From the beginning and before the world was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him.” Eccl. 24:14.

Catholics praying the Divine Office will find this Biblical quote in the hour of Lauds from the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is a favorite of mine because not only does it apply to Our Lady, it applies to every person created.  In this one verse God tells us that we are in His mind from all eternity, and that we will live forever after death, worshiping and praising Him. 

I am constantly struck by the love God has for each person – that He made us and His we are. (Ps. 99:3)  When we are struggling with pain and illnesses of all types we can sometimes forget that One greater than we has us in His heart.  Often we are so preoccupied with just getting by under our own power we forget to surrender to His power – to stop and ask what He is asking from us.

With the culture of death gaining greater ascendance daily, it seems to me that we must practice our Faith ever more diligently and especially to pray for the conversion of others.  (We must pray daily for our own conversion, too, but that is another topic.) 

For those of us who cannot do much in the physical realm, there remain the intentions of the heart: the unseen sacrifices we make in union with Christ.  The value of these sacrifices cannot be measured in earthly terms.  We will only know their true worth at the Last Judgment.  Fortunately, we have great examples to follow from Our Lady to our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone on before us.  Saints such as Catherine Laboure, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Faustina Kowalska, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. John Cantius, and Blessed Herman Joseph of Steinfeld – all spiritual giants who called no attention to themselves but left us the example of quiet holiness and the desire that all come to know and love Our Lord.

Tags: Blessed Virgin, Christ, conversion, Divine Office, pain, sacrifice, suffering