Conversion of Mary Magdalene, c. 1547, Paolo Veronese (b. 1528, Verona, d. 1588, Venezia), Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

Today’s reading from the Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict:

For the loving Lord says: “I will not the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted and live.” (Ez. 33:11)

Father Placidus Kempf, O.S.B. (RIP) mentions that we can’t convert from our evil ways unless we understand some fundamental spiritual truths.  He writes:

The first of these is — we are ignorant of ourselves.  Many of us are not only ignorant of a great part of our character, but we often imagine ourselves to be quite different from what we are.

The image that came to mind reading this is a crowd of blind people wearing sunglasses, carrying white canes and each holding on to his seeing-eye dog. We all share this characteristic of personality to some extent.  Married people are fortunate because our spouses generally give us hearty doses of reality that help us improve our vision and smarten us up about our character.

He goes on to say:

How completely we misunderstood ourselves, how different we really are from what we had thought ourselves to be! We think we are patience personified until our feelings are crossed; we are hurt — and we explode.  What revelations have not been made of our interior by illness, by bodily and mental suffering!

We must have a true knowledge of ourselves if we hope to make any progress in perfection.  We cannot make any serious attempt to conquer our sins till we know what they are.  Hence our first duty in conversion is to have a look inside. No one can do this work for us.

Painful work this is, but so rewarding.  The sacrament of Penance is the place where, if we have a good confessor and go often, we receive so many graces to enlighten our minds and hearts.  We learn what virtues to work on; people, places, and things to avoid; and good habits to develop.

Father Placidus gives us really good news, too:

Secondly there is nothing in us that is of itself bad. Jesus assumed our nature in its entirety.  We cannot imagine that he assumed anything that was inherently evil, or that He created and placed in it what was evil.  Analyze the soul of the greatest sinner and of the greatest saint and you will not find in the sinner any single element that is not in the saint.

Compare the soul of Mary Magdalen or St. Augustine before and after their conversion.  There was nothing lacking after their conversion that was not there before.  They destroyed nothing by their conversion, but were in full possession of all their powers. There was much in Mary Magdalen that she had, perhaps, never dreamed of till she came to Our Lord.  He revealed to her true self-development, and she found under His guidance that in her everything was to be used in a fuller way than she had ever imagined possible.  From Jesus she learned that holiness is not the emptying of life but the filling of it by the right use of all her powers.

About 10 or so years ago a popular bumper sticker read, “Jesus is the answer”.  Sometime I’d like to write more about that, but for now in the age of “positive self image” and “self-development”, and in light of these thoughts on conversion, I just want to say that we find our greatest value in Christ, not on the psychiatrist’s couch or in the psychologist’s armchair. How much money is wasted today on “feeling good about ourselves” when imitating Christ is the best medicine ever?  True conversion is possible the more we let in the light of Christ.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

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

Awareness of God

Welcome to our weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Visit her to read other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments and join in or comment.

Death of a friend

A couple of weeks ago my friend Shirley passed away at age 98.  I have had many Sabbath Moments thinking about her last few weeks as related by her daughters and the pastor.  “Jesus, I love you,” was constantly on her lips.  She lost no opportunity to tell her family she loved them, and her friends, too.  One day the pastor came and sat next to her on the bed and asked, “Shirley, how do you feel about meeting Jesus?”  She answered, “I’m ready.”  She said it often in that last week.

At age 88 Shirley decided to become a third order Carmelite.  She was using a walker by then because of hip degeneration that left her bone-on-bone.  From my own experience I know how painful that was. Thinking of her physical issues, her daughter asked her in some dismay, “What are you going to do, Mom?”  Shirley looked at her and answered, “Pray.”

As I have been contemplating St. Catherine of Genoa’s writings on purgatory and the need for souls to be in perfect charity with God to enter heaven, Shirley comes to mind as an example I should follow.  I cannot know what hidden stains from faults God might have to cleanse away before she enters heaven, but I do know that she died in the most perfect charity of anyone I have personally known.  Detached from everything and every person in this world, but bound by that golden filament of charity to all of us, living and dead, she shows me both how far I’ve come and how far I need to go to begin in this life the way of being in total unity with God that St. Paul speaks of in 1 Cor. 13:13.

A conversion story

Tanks in Tianamen Square, 1989 uprising

This week the Rome-based Dignitatis Humanitae Institute received a guest whose remarkable history and conversion provided me with unexpected Sabbath Moments.  Chai Ling, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was a key leader of the pro-democracy movement in China that drew over 100,000 students to Tianamen Square in 1989.  You can read more at Zenit’s Ongoing Tianamen, but I want to focus on her retrospective of the events the day the world saw Chinese military tanks and soldiers violently suppressing their own people.

Twenty years after her Tianamen Square experience, Ling converted to Christianity and in 2010 was baptized.  She says (quoting Zenit):

“I had faced death, looked it into the eye, but I didn’t overcome it — in other words I didn’t have the peace nor the joy, just sadness, sorrow and fear,” she recalls. “But we had a duty, we knew we had to confront whatever we were confronting.

“Then, after I’d given my speech, I felt this huge warm sensation come into my heart — a sense of love toward the leaders of China, toward the soldiers, the people who were about to kill us. It was the most amazing feeling and I wished they had known how much we’d loved them.”

“Now I know that this must be how Jesus felt on the cross,” Ling says.

She remembers witnessing “a power, an amazing spirit” at Tiananmen Square, but at the time she didn’t know how to articulate it.

“I’ve since come to know that it’s the spirit of Jesus,” she says. “Then everything started to makes sense.”

I cannot help but wonder what the outcome would have been for China had all those students been Christian.  What if all of them at once would have fallen to their knees and prayed the Our Father together?  Would China be a force for good today rather than a force for death?

Every day 35,000 forced abortions take place in China.  Every day a large portion of those killed are girls.  Today in China 120 boys are born for every 100 girls.  That’s just the abortion angle of their culture of death.  Greed and corruption lead to shoddy construction that results in many deaths every time there is a natural disaster.  We could go on and on here.

As I observe the “Occupy Wall Street” partisan political movement I again wonder, what if everyone who has a grievance against the government fell to his knees and prayed the Our Father?  What if everyone did it daily and in public in groups?  Could we not be delivered from the forces of darkness in this country and in the world that are choking the life out of people and destroying souls?

The Roman Coliseum was the site of public mass martyrdom of Christians.  Because of those and many other lives freely given as Christ gave His on the cross, Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor saw a rising tide of Christianity that eventually overcame the worst cruelties of their times.  Today we have the wonderful 40 Days for Life movement that involves small groups praying in front of abortion mills all over our country. Many lives are saved through this effort and many souls are won for God.

The love of Christ seeks to envelop the world and govern our actions.  It alone heals.  It alone converts those in darkness.  Even if it takes 20 years to bring about conversion as it did in Chai Ling’s case, His light shines no less brightly.  We are His apostles of love and light.  We cannot hide it under a bushel and call ourselves real Christians.  So many are waiting to put a name, as Chai Ling did, to the longing in their hearts.  How long shall we keep them waiting?

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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.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read other bloggers’ treasured moments with the Lord.

You might not think the death of a beloved pet would be a Sabbath Moment, but in the midst of grief is rejoicing.  Our 16+ year-old rescue dog had a massive stroke Monday and we had her put to sleep.  She was a great watch dog, my husband’s shadow, and a source of laughs as she was something of a clown – a very joyful dog. Considering she was around 114 in people years, we are grateful to God for her company all these years.  We always felt protected – she knew her job and did it well. The house seems too quiet now, and our 5+ year-old rescue dog is without her playmate, but she is already stepping into Gretchen’s big paw prints.  We surrendered this wonderful companion to God who gave her to us in the first place.

A Clean Heart Create in Me O God is the subject of a post I wrote this week.  Writing thoughts from meditation is always a Sabbath Moment.

One of St. Thomas Aquinas’ meditations for Lent was about the Samaritan woman and her method of preaching to her fellow townspeople.  It is a short lesson on presenting Jesus to newcomers.  I loved the fact that St. Thomas showed how the Christian can evangelize by telling a conversion story.  The personal lessons told to others of “I once was lost and now am found” carry a lot of weight.

So, how is your Lent going?

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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.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. These moments are times when we are with God, or recognize His presence in our lives.

This week I have been following the plight of the Japanese after the earthquake and devastating tsunami, and praying that God have mercy on them.  Most especially I am concerned about the people in shelters with no heat, scant water and food, and those who have lost loved ones. Some of the photographs have served as sources of Lenten meditation, to which I have devoted extra time for the conversion of the Japanese and relief of their suffering.

Spring is advancing and I can tell because the energy level of my fellow therapy pool friends is up.  It’s always good to see familiar faces and new faces, too, as we all are working on improving our quality of life.  I am especially grateful to God that we have the money to belong to the rehab center. I don’t think I could keep up strengthening my muscles and controlling the fibro pain without regular workouts in the therapy pool.  It is also a great blessing to be with others who are dealing with the same kind of thing I am in a positive way.

The sound of cheerful birds in the mornings is giving me the itch to get veggies planted, but it is too soon.   We will be getting help this coming week to ready our soil – another blessing.  This morning I woke to blooming forsythia, a sure sign that the worst of winter is over!

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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.)

Father Lovasik’s book, The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time, contains so many gems of spiritual advice that I can read it repeatedly and learn something new every time.  In the chapter, “Found your thoughts on virtue” he talks about the duty of forgiving. From pp. 117-119:

If you desire to obtain from God the pardon of the sins you have committed against Him, you must forgive from your heart those who have offended you. What is more, you must pray for them even as Jesus did.  This is the greatest act of charity.

For me, this is a tall order.  The more I have sunk my time, energy, and commitment to something or someone, the harder it is to forgive people who have done their best to obstruct my work or attacked me personally.  Also, as I look at people like certain of our political leaders who so arrogantly advance the culture of death, I really struggle with the act of praying for them. I know that to them I am disposable, and so are others like me.  I resent how they strip me of my human dignity, just as they do to every aborted child and every euthanized adult or child.  How difficult it is to pray for someone we are angry with!

Father Lovasik reduces overcoming this problem to simple steps we can actually accomplish.  It doesn’t mean that conquering our resentment will be an easy fight; we can work something over for years.  The important thing is that regardless of our feelings, we do the right thing.  That’s what heroic virtue is made of.

Here are his suggestions for developing virtue when we most want to retaliate.

Bear injustice patiently. [This is one of the seven spiritual works of mercy.] When it pleases God to permit you to labor under the cloud of false suspicion, false judgment, calumny, or detraction, try to remember the following suggestions:

Try to see God’s permission of the happening. St.  Francis de Sales gives this advice: “We must have patience not only to be ill, but to be ill with the illness which God wills, in the place where He wills, and among such persons as He wills; and so of our tribulations.”  Try to avoid thinking of the grievance. “Love is patient.” (1 Cor. 13:14)  Concentrating on wrongs done to you generally impresses the undesirable facts more deeply on your memory and does not obviate the evil.  Complete abandonment to God and trust in His Providence form the most worthy procedure for your soul.

St. Francis de Sales in His Study, 1760, Peter Anton Lorenzoni, Saint Sigismund parish church in Strobl, Salzburg, Austria, Wikimedia

Do not talk the matter over with others [This is extraordinarily difficult for some of us.  I want to blab the injustice to everybody I know.] except for the purpose of getting direction to make virtue out of necessity.  Other persons seldom understand adequately…. Learn to bear snubs, setbacks, and sharp tongues nobly with Christ at Herod’s court. Justice will prevail.  God will right all wrongs, if not in this life, then surely at the Last Judgment.

Pray for the grace of conversion for failing ones.  Unless the erring ones are incorrigibly obstinate or hopelessly blind [Planned Parenthood?] they will, by the grace of God [Abby Johnson] be brought to a salutary realization of their wrongdoing through patience on your part.

Let this cross be a source of self-sanctification rather than torture for your soul.  Offer the pain you must suffer in expiation for sin — your own as well as those of others — and also for blessings upon those who have been unfair to you.

Find strength and consolation in prayer. You need God’s grace to make any difficulty a means of greater personal holiness.  Prayer secures that grace.  You can conquer anything with God’s grace, but nothing without it. Your prayer need not be long, but brief and definite…. Pray for the checking of the moral evils so prevalent even among Catholics.

Cultivate the devotion of reparation to the Sacred Heart. Ask Jesus, the forbearing and long-suffering Savior, for a tolerant frame of mind regarding the actions of others.  Ask Him for the power to influence others, especially through your example, to put aside their undesirable habits.  Ask for the grace to remember that others exercise much patience with you. [My husband comes to mind here.  He is very patient with me!] Especially, ask Jesus crucified for a practical and more perfect understanding of His great example in forgiving, so that you may learn to bear with others.

Father Lovasik’s words make me think that maybe this Lent would best be spent by me concentrating on this one spiritual work of mercy.  We have been given the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost at Confirmation.  Two of the twelve fruits of this indwelling are “long-suffering” and “mildness.” It isn’t easy to harvest these fruits, but striving to do so creates great adventures on the road to perfection.

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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.)

King David Playing the Zither, Andrea Celesti (1637-1712 Venice), oil on canvas, private collection

Welcome to Praying the Psalms.  Jenny at Just a Minute hosts this meme, so visit her to read other’s comments on this Psalm.

In this Psalm we have a hint of the Sermon on the Mount, a peek at Job’s condition, a snippet of a traditional prayer for the Pope, a foreshadowing of Judas’s betrayal, and praise of God’s mercy in the sacrament of Penance.

vs. 1-4 Blessed is he who has regard for the lowly and the poor; in the days of misfortune the Lord will deliver him.  The Lord will keep and preserve him; he will make him happy on the earth, and not give him over to the will of his enemies. The Lord will help him on his sickbed, he will take away all his ailment when he is ill. [There are many kinds of poverty.  To have regard for the poor is more than giving time and money to erase poverty.  As St. Teresa of Avila wrote, the greatest alms giving is to pray for those in mortal sin. If we have regard for all kinds of poverty, we will pray for the deliverance of everyone suffering and in need, whether physically, mentally or spiritually.

Lord, let me be a spot of joy in the days of all I meet.  Let me embrace true poverty of spirit, knowing that Your goodness and mercy will triumph over the will of my Adversary.  His will is my eternal destruction.  Your will is my eternal sanctification.  Bring all on this earth to know You, love You, and serve You now and in eternity.

Thank You, Lord, for the sacrament of Penance where You deliver me from the misfortune of my sins.  You truly take away my ailments when I am ill.]

vs. 5-10 Once I said, “O Lord, have pity on me; heal me, though I have sinned against you.  My enemies say the worst of me: ‘When will he die and his name perish?’ When one comes to see me, he speaks without sincerity; his heart stores up malice; when he leaves he gives voice to it outside.  All my foes whisper together against me; against me they imagine the worst: ‘A malignant disease fill his frame’ and ‘Now that he lies ill, he will not rise again.’ Even my friend who had my trust and partook of my bread, has raised his heel against me.

[These verses recall the story of Job, who was a foreshadowing of the innocent Christ, suffering but sinless, and who was the subject of much malignant talk.  Jesus became the scapegoat, carrying all our sins. He speaks to the Father in our name in vs. 5.

Jesus's enemies even today desire that His name perish. The Pharisees wanted You dead, Lord, and they believed You would not rise again.  But they were wrong then and are wrong again today. Deliver us, Lord, from the malicious tongues that stir up whirlwinds of lies. Give us the grace to declare Your truth always, fearlessly.

Judas betrayed You, even though he was Your friend.  For myself and for the whole world I ask, Lord, that You destroy all that is deceitful in us and bring all of us to Your eternal wedding feast on the last day.]

vs 11-14 But You, O Lord, have pity on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.”  That You love me I know by this, that my enemy does not triumph over me, but because of my integrity You sustain me and let me stand before You forever.  Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from all eternity and forever.  Amen.  Amen.

[Lord, by Your power I will resist temptation. By Your power Satan will not triumph over me, just as he did not triumph over You.  Raise me up on the last day.  Let me praise You now and forever.  Let me bring You to all I meet that they may come to know You and praise You forever, too.  We are poor in our sins, but rich in Your mercy and love.]

Traditional Prayer for the Pope

V.  Let us pray for Benedict, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. [Ps 43:3]

Our Father, Hail Mary.

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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.)

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

“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)

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.

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.