Spirituality Matters January 2nd - January 8th

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(January 2, 2020: Basil the Great)
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“Remain in him...”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:

“In Basil’s day most monks and nuns were hermits living in isolated corners of the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. Arguing that people are ‘sociable beings, and not isolated or savage,’ he urged the hermits to form communities near towns and cities where ordinary Christians could profit from their prayers and, inspired by their example, deepen their own religious life. The monks and nuns could take in orphans and open schools, recruiting a new generation for the religious life. To this day in the Eastern Church, St. Basil’s guidelines for monks and nuns remain the standard.” (This Saint’s for You, p. 359)

In today’s selection from the First Letter of John the word “remain(s)” is used six times. The author challenges us to remain in Jesus in order that Jesus may remain in us. Among other things, “remain” is defined as “to continue in the same state or condition, to continue to be in the same place, stay or stay behind.” At first glance this definition seems to suggest that remaining in Jesus is somehow static - that’s about staying the same, that it’s about treading water, that it’s about running in place. The word “remain” feels passive. The problem is that Jesus is anything but passive; Jesus is all about action.

To remain in Jesus requires effort. To remain in Jesus requires energy. To remain in Jesus requires endurance. However, as St. Basil the Great would suggest, to “remain in him” isn’t limited to Jesus. As “sociable beings” we need something else in order to remain – that is, “to endure or persist” – with Jesus.

We need to “endure and persist” as Church. We need to “endure and persist” as community. We need to “endure persist” with one another. After all, we are the Body of Christ.

Together

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(January 3, 2020: Most Holy Name of Jesus)
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“Those who have this hope based on him make themselves pure, as he is pure...”

Have you ever looked closely at the outside of a carton of Breyer’s Ice Cream? Somewhere in the vicinity of the image of the mint leaf you will find the “Pledge of Purity.” This trademarked pledge (inaugurated in 1908 by Henry Breyer himself) personally guaranteed that each container contained the highest-quality, all natural ingredients available.

This notion of purity might be very helpful in our attempts to understand today’s selection from the First Letter of John. After all, who of us can claim to be “pure?” Who us can claim to be perfect? Who of us can claim to be without blemish? With the exception of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, such “purity” is reserved for God, and for God alone.

So, where does that leave us?

Well, if being “pure” is about being all-natural, we can strive for that. If being “pure” is about being real, we can strive for that. If being “pure” is about being authentic, we can strive for that. If being “pure” is about being transparent, we can strive for that. If being “pure” is about being guileless, we can strive for that. If being “pure” is about avoiding artificiality in any/all its forms, we can strive for that. If being “pure” is about being unadulterated, we can strive for that. In short, if being “pure” is about being true to whom God wants us to be - no more, no less – we can strive for that.

Look at the life of Jesus himself. He was all-natural. He was real. He was authentic. He was guileless. He was unadulterated. He was transparent. He eschewed anything artificial. In short, Jesus was faithful to whom God wanted him to be: no more, no less.

Today, ow can we hope to imitate the purity of Jesus in our relationship with God, in our relationship with ourselves and in our relationships with one another? Help yourself to a heaping and healthy scoop of “Breyer’s” spirituality.

Avoid anything artificial! Keep it natural! Keep it real!

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(January 4, 2020: Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious and Founder)
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“The person who acts in righteousness is righteous…”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:

“For two hundred years American parochial schools have provided countless children with a solid education while teaching them how to be faithful Catholics and solid citizens. While parish schools aren’t as numerous as they once were – to say nothing of the legions of nuns that used to teach in them – the situation is not nearly as daunting as it was in Elizabeth Ann Seton’s day.”

“Mother Seton’s life coincides with the birth of the United States and the rise of the Catholic Church in America. She was born one year before the battles of Lexington and Concord, during an era when Catholicism was outlawed in every colony except Maryland. In British America, there were no bishops, no nuns, no Catholic schools and no seminaries. Only about twenty priests lived in the colonies, most living incognito and using aliases to avoid hard anti-clerical laws. For her part she grew up the daughter of a prominent, well-to-do Anglican family on Staten Island. During the revolution they walked a fine line between loyalty to the king and support for the rebels. Whatever her family’s true sympathies may have been, they were firmly in the American camp by the time George Washington was elected president: in fact, the then-fifteen-year-old Elizabeth danced at the first inaugural ball.”

“At the age on nineteen she married William Seton, a wealthy New York merchant. The couple had five children – three girls and two boys – and enjoyed a life of comfort and privilege. After eight years of marriage, William’s business went bankrupt: shortly thereafter, he contracted tuberculosis. In an attempt to save William’s health, the Setons sailed for Italy, where William had business friends, the Filicchi family. He subsequently succumbed to his chronic illness. Elizabeth and her children remained as guests of the Filicchi’s for some time. Their hosts owned a private chapel that provided Elizabeth with her first exposure to the Catholic faith, about which two things impressed this widowed mother: the Filicchi’s reverence during Mass, and the comfort they appeared to receive from confession. Upon her return to New York, Elizabeth sought out the pastor of a local Catholic Church and asked to convert to Catholicism.”

“With few exceptions, Elizabeth’s Anglican family and friends turned their backs on her following her conversion. She struggled to support herself and her children until Bishop John Carroll invited her to open a Catholic school in the archdiocese of Baltimore. It was during this time that she began to consider joining a religious community. However, the European model of religious life – living a mostly cloistered life with only a few hours per day devoted to teaching girls who boarded at the convent – did not appeal to her. With so much work begging to be done for the Catholic Church in America, Elizabeth wanted to be much more active. With Bishop Carroll’s encouragement, she founded a new community of sisters dedicated to the work of Catholic education: The Sisters of Charity. They opened America’s first parish school in Emmitsburg, Maryland on February 22, 1810.”

“The system established by Mother Seton conveyed the faith from generation to generation; it eased the passage of Catholic immigrants into American society; it served as the seedbed for countless vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. Her teaching order offered a new model for religious women – sisters who were ‘in the world, but not of it.’ In the history of the Catholic Church in America, Mother Seton was – and continues to be – an indispensible woman.” (This Saint’s for You, pp. 99-100)

Elizabeth Ann Seton was – indeed – a righteous person. She did the right thing by founding a community of religious women who dedicated their lives to parochial education: teaching children – many of them immigrants – how to be faithful Catholics and solid citizens.

Today, how can we imitate her example by doing what is righteous – and being someone righteous – in the lives of others? How can we – like her – be “indispensible” citizens of the Kingdom of God?

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(January 5, 2020: Epiphany of the Lord)
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“They did him homage.”

“They set out. The star which they had observed at its rising went ahead of them until it came to a standstill over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house, found the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. They opened their coffers and presented him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Not just today, but every day –– every hour, every moment –– we are called to follow the star that is our Lord, our Redeemer and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Each day, we are called to set out onto the road of life, following the signs of God’s love, justice, reconciliation and peace wherever we experience them. And like the astrologers in today’s Gospel, we, too, are called to “do him homage.”

Homage, an old-fashioned, quaint-sounding term, is defined in the dictionary as “special honor or respect shown publicly.”

Hmmm, perhaps not so quaint or out-of-date a notion after all!

How can we do Jesus homage? How can we publicly give him special honor and respect? What kind of gifts can we give to Christ –– and by extension, to one another –– day in and day out? Are such displays of respect limited to cross-continental treks or exotic, once-in-a-lifetime treasures?

Francis de Sales offers this advice:

“Let us not be at all eager in our work, for, in order to do it well, we must apply ourselves to it carefully indeed, but calmly and peacefully, without trusting in our labor, but rather, relying on God and God’s grace. Anxious searchings of the heart about advancing in perfection, and those endeavors to see if we are advancing, are not at all pleasing to God, and only serve to satisfy our own self-love, that subtle tormentor which grasps at so much but accomplishes so very little. One single good work, done with tranquil spirit, is worth far more than many done with anxious eagerness.”

Paying homage to Jesus –– showing special respect and honor in public –– is measured less by grandiose feats and more by simple, ordinary actions performed with great attention and intention. Paying homage to Jesus is less about a multiplicity of good deeds and more about fully immersing ourselves in each moment of each day as it comes. Paying homage to Jesus is less about trying to prove to Jesus how worthy we are and more about accepting our need for God and the actions of God’s grace in our lives. Paying homage to Jesus is less about prostrating ourselves before him and more about standing up for all that is righteous, peaceful, liberating and just.

How might our experiences this day –– and especially, the people whom we encounter in those experiences –– be inviting us to pay homage to Christ? By paying special honor and respect to one another - one, single good work at a time.

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(January 6, 2020: Andre Bessette, Religious)
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“Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us.”

In today’s selection from the First Letter of John the word “remain(s)” is used twice. The author challenges us to remain in Jesus in order that Jesus may remain in us. Among other things, “remain” is defined as “to continue in the same state or condition, to continue to be in the same place, stay or stay behind.” At first glance this definition seems to suggest that remaining in Jesus is somehow static. The word “remain” feels passive. The problem is that Jesus is anything but passive; Jesus is all about action.

To remain in Jesus requires effort. To remain in Jesus requires energy. To remain in Jesus requires endurance. However, as St. Basil the Great would suggest, to “remain in him” isn’t limited to Jesus. As “sociable beings” we need something else in order to remain – that is, “to endure or persist” – with Jesus.

The life and legacy of Andre Bessette offers us a concrete example of what it looks like to “remain” in the Lord:

“When Alfred Bessette came to the Holy Cross Brothers in 1870, he carried with him a note from his pastor saying, ‘I am sending you a saint.’ The Brothers found that difficult to believe. Chronic stomach pains had made it impossible for Alfred to hold a job very long and since he was a boy he had wandered from shop to shop, farm to farm, in his native Canada and in the United States, staying only until his employers found out how little work he could do. The Holy Cross Brothers were teachers and, at 25, Alfred still did not know how to read and write. It seemed as if Alfred approached the religious order out of desperation, not for a vocation.”

“He may have had no place left to go, but he believed that was because this was the place he felt he should have been all along. The Holy Cross Brothers took him into the novitiate but soon found out what everybody else had learned - as hard as Alfred (now Brother Andre) wanted to work, he simply wasn't strong enough. They asked him to leave the order, but Andre, out of desperation, appealed to a visiting bishop who promised him that he would intercede on his behalf with the brothers so that Andre could stay and take his vows.”

“After his vows, Brother Andre was sent to Notre Dame College in Montreal (a school for boys aged seven to twelve) as a porter. His responsibilities were to answer the door, to welcome guests, find the people they were visiting, wake up those in the school, and deliver mail. Through kindness, caring, and devotion, Brother Andre helped many souls experience healing – in many documented cases, including physical healings.”

“As if that were not enough, in 1904 Bro. Andre received permission to construct a small chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, to whom he had a life-long devotion. By the 1930’s he had inaugurated the construction of a basilica on the highest point of the city on Montreal, but the Depression all-but-brought the project to a halt. At ninety-years old he told his co-workers to place a statue of St. Joseph in the unfinished, unroofed basilica. Brother Andre died soon after on January 6, 1937 and didn't live to see the work on the basilica completed. But in Brother Andre's mind it never would be completed because he always saw more ways to express his devotion and to heal others. As long as he lived, the man who had trouble keeping work for himself had never stopped working for God.”

On December 19, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated a decree recognizing a second miracle at Blessed André's intercession and on October 17, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI formally declared sainthood for Blessed Andre. (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=18)

Much as Bro. Andre did, we need to be active and tenacious in our daily attempts to “remain in the Lord.” We need to “endure and persist” as Church. We need to “endure and persist” as community. We need to “endure and persist” for God and with one another.

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(January 7, 2020: Raymond of Penyafort, Priest)
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“In this we love: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.”

In attempting to describe the ‘love of God,’ Francis de Sales wrote the following in his Treatise on the Love of God:

“This is not a love which natural powers – whether of angels or of men – can produce. It is the Holy Spirit who pours it into our hearts. Just as our souls which give life to our bodies do not take their origin from our bodies but are placed in our bodies by God’s natural providence, so also charity – that is, the love of God – which gives life to our hearts is not extracted from our hearts but is poured into them like a heavenly liquor by the supernatural providence of His divine majesty…We don’t love our parents because they belong to us; we love them because we belong to them. It is thus that we love and desire God: not that He may become our good, but because He is our good; not that He may become ours but because we are His. It is not as though He exists for us: we exist for Him.” (Living Jesus, p. 207; 209-210)

When we describe the “love of God,” we need to be crystal clear that the “love of God” is not about something we do for God. No, the “love of God” is all about God, and God’s love for us. That said, it says a great deal about God when we consider that God would share this most divine of gifts with us. What return can we possibly make to God for empowering each of us with so wonderful a gift? The truth is we can’t return it. However, we can share it!

With one another today and every day!

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(January 8, 2020: Christmas Weekday)
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“There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment…”

And yet, we hear in the Book of Proverbs (9:10): “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Solomon is warning his son that no matter how much knowledge you gain, unless you fear - or stand in total awe of - God, you will not know how to use it. This theme runs through most of the book of Proverbs. It is God who establishes what is moral, what is right and what is good. And if you have no plumb line for your behavior external to yourself, you are like a rudderless ship, driven by changing tides and winds of your emotions. In that case, your knowledge will not do you -- or anyone else -- much good. You will cause far more disaster than good.

Keep in mind the key word is: beginning. Even the loftiest of projects has to start somewhere. In a perfect world, we would always do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do. Insofar as this world is anything but perfect, however, sometimes we do the right thing for fear of being punished, for fear of getting into trouble or for fear of losing out. St. Jane de Chantal once remarked: “The way of fear closes the heart and only ends in making us avoid evil and do good from the motive of being afraid of reprimands and penances.” (Select Salesian Subjects, p. 127, 0532) However, if our pursuit of wisdom never grows beyond fear, we are doomed to failure. Spiritual maturity requires that we grow beyond fear - that we eventually leave fear behind.

Francis de Sales employs a powerful image to make this point. Referencing the famous scene in which Peter is invited by Jesus to walk upon tempestuous waters, Francis de Sales observed:

“Behold St. Peter. Fear is a greater evil than the evil that is feared. It would have caused him to perish in the waters had not his Master saved him. O child of little faith, fear not! You are walking on the waters – in the midst of the wind and waves – but it is with Jesus. If fear seizes you, cry loudly, ‘Lord, save me or I perish!’ He will extend His hand to you; clasp it firmly and continue on joyously.” (Words of the Saints: St. Francis de Sales, p. 114)

Fear may be the beginning of wisdom, but as we grow in wisdom, we find less use for fear. Where there is love – the fullness of love – there is no room or need – for fear at all. God is love and there is no fear in Him.

Today, what extent can the same be said of us?

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Spirituality Matters December 26th - January 1st

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(December 26, 2019: Stephen, First Martyr)
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“You will be hated because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved…”

The day after we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, the day after we celebrate the gift of the Incarnation, the day after we celebrate the coming of Emmanuel, God-who-is-with-us, the day after we ponder the miracle of the Word-made-Flesh, we remember the ultimate sacrifice of the first martyr, Stephen. A stark contrast, indeed, to the idyllic images of a newborn babe, of a manger, of barn animals, of shepherds and of choirs of angels.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote: “Look at the example given by the saints in every walk of life. There is nothing that they have not done in order to love God and be God’s devoted followers. See the martyrs, unconquerable in determination. What torments they suffered to keep their resolutions…” (IDL, V, Chapter 12, p. 284)

The deacon Stephen was “working great wonders and signs among the people”. He was simply being faithful to God’s will for him: he wasn’t looking for a fight. But when others decided to bring the fight to Stephen, he didn’t duck it: he stood his ground in giving witness to the power and promise of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He endured to the end, an end that came almost immediately.

We share two things with Stephen: (1) we are called to give witness to the power and promise of the Lord Jesus in our own lives, and (2) we are challenged to endure to the end. As Francis de Sales tells us in so many places throughout his writings, ‘martyrdom’ will not come for most of us in the form of ‘enduring to the end’ of an unexpectedly-shortened life; rather, we are called to bear witness by ‘enduring to the end’ a long, perhaps unexpectedly-exhausting life.

Either way, may God give us the strength to hold our ground in bearing witness to God whenever, wherever and however God may choose!!

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(December 27, 2019: John the Apostle, Evangelist)
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In his introduction to Francis de Sales’ Conferences, N. Cardinal Wiseman wrote the following about St. John, Apostle and Evangelist:

“He could speak nothing else but love. If he writes a Gospel, love diffuses a golden glow over it, totally different from any other: it is the Gospel of love. If he writes a long epistle to the universal Church, or a short letter to a lady and her children, it must be on love; and we know that he spoke ever on this topic, till the thoughts and words of his long life gradually distilled and condensed, at last, in the feebleness of his frame and organs, concentrated themselves into the one sentence, which, Sunday after Sunday, formed his only sermon; till, by its monotony, it wearied his hearers, but cannot weary the Church of ages: ‘My little children, love one another.’ Such is the spirit of St. John…” (Conferences, page xli)

The Apostle whom Jesus loved was, in his own life, consumed with and by love. Jesus also loves each of us.

Today, how can we be said to be consumed with and by that same love? And also, in what ways do we share in the spirit of St. John by being sources of that same spirit – of love – in the lives of others?

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(December 28, 2019: Holy Innocents, Martyrs)
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In his Conference on Constancy, a sermon for the Octave of Holy Innocents, Francis de Sales remarked:

“We are keeping the Octave of the Feast of the Holy Innocents on which day holy Church makes us read the Gospel which describes how the Angel of the Lord told the glorious St. Joseph in a dream – that is to say when he was sleeping – that he must take the Child and the Mother and flee to Egypt, since Herod, jealous of his royalty, and fearing that he would take it away, was seeking Our Lord to put Him to death. Full of wrath because the three Kings had not returned to him in Jerusalem, he had commanded that all the little children under the age of two be put to death, and hoping by that means to ensure the possession of his Kingdom…” (Conferences, page 29)

We probably don’t think about this often but consider the irony: in order to avoid Herod’s wrath against all children under the age of two, the Angel commands that Joseph take Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Talk about possibly jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire! Egypt! Sworn enemy of the Jews! This is the place to which Joseph is told to flee and take refuge! Someone of lesser faith might have said to the Angel: “No thanks. I’ll take my chances here…”

So, too, with us. How many times in our lives do we find ourselves being asked to take uncertain risks in order to avoid a certain one? How many times in our lives do we wonder if the would-be solution to one problem has the potential of creating other problems of its own? Joseph placed his trust in God. By taking a risk, he did the right thing, not only for himself but for those he loved.

How might God be asking us this day to take the risks involved in doing the right thing? How might we embrace those risks as people of faith?

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(December 29, 2019: Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph)
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“God’s chosen ones...”

Today’s selection from the Book of Sirach certainly shares in the spirit of the Fourth Commandment: “Honor your mother and father.” The reading is telling us that our relationships with others - especially those with whom we share so much time and contact every day - are the primary expression of the disposition of our hearts, minds, affections and attitudes.

The selection from the Letter to the Colossians confronts us with the gift - and the challenge - of creating that “space” we call “family,” a space in which we first learn something of what it means to be sons and daughters of God. As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, we must clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Insofar as a holy life is not the same as a stress-free or trouble-free life (just look at the very early life, of Jesus, Mary and Joseph), we all need to practice these virtues all the time with the hope of establishing, maintaining and strengthening family, especially - God forbid - when we ruffle, distract, disappoint or hurt one another.

Francis de Sales calls us to live a life of devotion in ways that fit the demands and responsibilities of the state and stage of live in which we find ourselves. What is a devout life? It is nothing more complicated (but more demanding) than doing what is right in the eyes of God, and in relation to one another, carefully, frequently and diligently. It is precisely in the vocation in which we find ourselves, especially in those roles so basic as mother, father, brother, sister, wife, husband, son or daughter that we must practice the devout life.

Francis de Sales tells us: “The little, unattractive and hardly noticeable virtues which are required of us in our household, our place of work, among friends, with strangers, any time and all the time, these are the virtues for us.” (Introduction, Part III, Chapter 2). Of course, the most important practice is that of love, which not only reconciles, but also purifies and, dare we say, even glorifies the best of human relationships. It is only in relationship with one another that the practice of the little, everyday virtues flowers into love, not only helping to create a better life here on earth, but also providing a foretaste of the eternal life promised to us in heaven.

As we celebrate the Feast of The Holy Family, we realize that we actually know very little about the day-to-day give-and-take of the relationships among Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Family life – a hidden life – is a way of life that requires both science and art. Considering Jesus’ fidelity to - and consistency in - his pursuit of justice, peace, reconciliation and freedom, we certainly can sense where Jesus first acquired as a child so many of the skills he would later practice in his adult life.

After all, charity, peace, justice, forgiveness - like so many things - begin at home!

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(December 30, 2019: Monday within the Octave of Christmas)
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“Do not love the world or the things of the world. The world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.”

This statement sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Insofar as the world and so many things of the world are gifts from a loving God, should we not appreciate them? Should we not celebrate and cherish them? Should we – dare we say it – love the world and the things of this world?

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When our worldly goods cleave to our hearts, what complaints, what trouble and what impatience do we experience if a storm, a thief or a cheat should take away from us any part of our possessions. When our goods do not cleave to our hearts and we think about them only because of the care as God wants us to have for them, then we won’t lose reason or peace of mind if or when they are taken from us.”

He continued:

“If you are too strongly attached to the goods of the world that you possess, if you are too solicitous about them, if you set your heart on them, if you are always thinking about them and if you fear losing them with a strong, anxious fear, then believe me…you love them too much. It is impossible to take great please in a thing without having extraordinary affection for it.” (IDL, II, Chapter 6, p. 116)

Pay close attention to what Francis de Sales is saying. While he isn’t suggesting that we should hate the world (it is, after all, a gift from God that God has commissioned us to care for and cultivate!), Francis seems to be encouraging us to make a subtle – but lifesaving – distinction. We should take great delight in the world and many things of this world, but we should reserve our love for relationships alone – our relationships with God, with others and with ourselves. Even as we possess things, we should do our level best to prevent those things from possessing us. Put another way, while celebrating the manifold gifts of creation during the course of our lives on earth, we should remind ourselves from time to time that we can’t take them with us into heaven – with one exception, of course.

Love!

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(December 31, 2019: Seventh Day, Octave of Christmas)
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“Every lie is alien to the truth…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Your language should be restrained, frank, sincere, candid, unaffected and honest. Be on guard against equivocation, ambiguity or dissimulation. While it is not always advisable to say all that is true, it is never permissible to speak against the truth. Therefore, you must become accustomed to never tell a deliberate lie whether to excuse yourself or for some other purposes, remembering always that God is the ‘God of truth.’ If you happen to tell a lie inadvertently, correct it immediately by an explanation or making amends. An honest explanation always has more grace and force to excuse us that a lie has…Lying, double-dealing and dissimulation are always signs of a weak, mean mind.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 30, p. 206)

Jesus tells us “the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Today, do you want to be free? Then don’t merely tell the truth but also be a truthful – and truth-filled – person.

OR 

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(December 31, 2019: New Year ’s Eve)
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An Exhortation by St. Jane de Chantal on the Beginning of a New Year

We are about to bring another year to an end, a year like so many years which have come before it.

Time passes by. The years come and go, and some day we, likewise, will pass and come to an end as well. We must make a strong and absolute resolution that, if Our Lord should gift us with yet another full year, we will make better use of it than those years that have come – and gone – before. Let us walk with a new step in God’s divine service to our neighbor and to our greater perfection. Let us take great courage to labor in earnest.

Please take this to heart. What is the point of being gifted with a new year if not to recommit ourselves to the task at hand? Otherwise, we should not be astonished to find ourselves in the same place at the conclusion of this year with little or nothing to show for it. I desire that this not happen to you; rather, consider how you can make good use of every day that God is pleased to give you. Let us embrace the responsibilities and challenges of life in the best way that we can; let us employ the time that God gives us with great care. While we hope in God’s divine goodness, may we also remember to aspire to actually do what is good.

So, then, let us live this New Year in the name of our Lord. Let us redouble our efforts at serving God and one another faithfully, especially in small and simple ways. God only expects what we can do, but what we can do God clearly expects. Therefore, let us be diligent in giving our best to God, leaving the rest in the hands of God’s infinite generosity.

(Based upon St. Jane de Chantal’s Exhortation for the last Saturday of 1629, On the Shortness of Life. Found in Conferences of St. Jane de Chantal. Newman Bookshop: Westminster, Maryland. 1947. Pages 106 – 107)

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(January 1, 2020: Mary, Mother of God)
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“The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!”

In his >u>Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Honor, venerate and respect with special love the holy and glorious Virgin Mary who, being the Mother of Jesus Christ our Brother, is also in truth our very mother. Let us then have recourse to her, and as her little children cast ourselves into her bosom with perfect confidence, at all times and on all occasions let us invoke her maternal love whilst striving to imitate her virtues…” (Living Jesus, p. 224)

As we begin another New Year, let us rededicate our lives to the glorious Virgin Mary. Let us honor, venerate and respect her. Let us turn to her. Let us have confidence in her. Let us invoke her maternal love while striving to imitate her virtues. For her part, may Mary – Mother of Jesus – help us in our efforts every day during this New Year to be worthy brothers and sisters of her Son. And in so doing, may God bless us and keep us. May the Lord let his face shine upon us and be gracious to us. May the Lord look upon us kindly and give us peace!

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Spirituality Matters December 19th - December 25th

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(December 19, 2019: Thursday of the Third Week of Advent)
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“Now you will be speechless and unable to talk…because you did not believe my words.”

Poor Zechariah!!! You can hardly blame the guy for having a follow-up question for Gabriel in the wake of the latter’s pronouncement that Zechariah and his wife will have a son, and not just any old son at that, but one who will embody the spirit and power of Elijah! All Zechariah wanted to know was how this is supposed to happen to a couple who are apparently pretty advanced in years. For raising the question, Gabriel renders Zechariah mute until his pronouncement comes to pass.

Meanwhile, earlier in the same Gospel – the Gospel we will hear tomorrow – when Mary asks a question of Gabriel concerning his prediction that she will be the mother of the Messiah, Mary receives no rebuke.

Look at the parallels: the angel Gabriel appears to both Mary and Zechariah, both Mary and Zechariah are troubled by their respective annunciations, both ask for some clarification around the annunciation (i.e., “How will this happen?”) and both receive additional information and assurances. However, it is only Zechariah who seems to incur the angel’s displeasure, and he suffers accordingly. (Of course, all this changes later when Zechariah indicates that his son is to be named “John.”)

The difference in these two events seems to be indicated by Gabriel himself. He criticizes Zechariah not for questioning him, but for not believing him! In the case of Zechariah, it appears that his question was less a question and more a statement of disbelief, whereas Mary’s question was an expression of overwhelming wonderment and awe.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When God gives us faith, God enters into our soul and speaks to our mind. He does this not by way of discussion but by inspiration. So pleasantly does God propose to the intellect what it must believe that the will thereby receives such great complacence that it incites the intellect to the truth and acquiesce in it without any doubt or opposition whatsoever…” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 14, p. 138.)

In the end, things worked out well for both Mary and Zechariah. Each acquiesced to the manifestation of God’s will in their lives, albeit at a different pace and a different pattern! Each played pivotal roles in God’s plan of salvation. While both questions and disbelief can serve as means of increasing our faith in their own unique ways, perhaps Gabriel’s underlying message is simply this: don’t allow your legitimate questions to rob you of your faith and trust in God’s love for you…or your ability to say “yes” to that love with trust and with faith.

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(December 20, 2019: Friday of the Third Week of Advent)
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“Ask for a sign from the Lord your God…”

Who wouldn’t jump at the chance of making such a request of God? Who wouldn’t say “yes” to the opportunity for God to display His power for us and/or for someone whom we love? Yet, in today’s selection from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Ahaz balks when given the opportunity of a lifetime: he takes a pass. He backs away, saying, “I will not tempt the Lord.”

Why do you think he backed away? Perhaps Ahaz’s reluctance is rooted in his intuition that signs from the Lord often require changes in the one who asks for the sign in the first place! Under those circumstances, his circumspection makes a whole lot more sense. Remember the admonition? “Be careful what you pray for…”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Devout discussions and arguments, miracles and other helps in Christ’s religion do indeed make it supremely credible and knowable, but faith alone makes it believed and known. It brings us to love the beauty of its truth and to believe the truth of its beauty by the sweetness it diffuses throughout our will and the certitude it gives to our intellect. The Jews saw our Lord’s miracles (signs) and heard his marvelous doctrines, but since they were not disposed to accept the faith, that is, since their wills were not susceptible to the sweet and gentle faith because of the bitterness and malice with which they were filled, they remained in their infidelity. They saw the force of the proof but they did not relish its sweet conclusion…” (TLG, II, Chapter 14, pp. 139 – 140)

As people of faith, we should feel free enough to ask God for signs; however, we must be prepared to consider - and follow - the directions in which those signs may challenge us to go.

And – where necessary - to change!!!

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(December 21, 2019: Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church)
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Where did we ever get the notion that being wise requires us to be know-it-alls? Why reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to do so? Why start from scratch when it isn’t necessary?

We might say this applies to St. Francis de Sales himself as today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Peter Canisius, SJ, a Dutchman and contemporary of the “Gentleman Saint” who became a prominent force as a missionary in Counter-Reformation Germany.

In defending the Church’s teaching on Purgatory against the critique of John Calvin, Francis de Sales remarked:

“It is a beautiful thing - and one full of consolation - to see the perfect correspondence which the present Church has with the ancients, particularly in belief. Let us mention what supports our position concerning Purgatory. All the ancient fathers believed in it and have testified that it was of the Apostolic faith. Here are the authors we have for it…It would have been easy for me to bring forward their testimonies, which are accurately collected in the books of our Catholics: of Canisius, in his Catechism; of Sanders On the Visible Monarchy; of Genebrand in his Chronology; of Bellarmine in his Controversy on Purgatory,; of Stapleton in his Promptuary. But particularly let those who would see at length and faithfully quoted the passages of the ancient Fathers, take up the work of Canisius…” (The Catholic Controversy, pp. 378 – 379)

What’s the point of our consideration? Wisdom isn’t about needing to know everything all by yourself. Wisdom – in part – is all about knowing where to find that which you need to know from the work already done by others.

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(December 22, 2019: Fourth Sunday of Advent)
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“Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about…”

In a Christmas sermon, Francis de Sales remarked:

“What else have we to say except that the mystery of Our Lord’s Nativity is also the mystery of the Visitation? Just as the most holy Virgin was to visit her cousin Elizabeth, we, too, must go very often to visit the Divine Babe lying in the manger. There we shall learn from the sovereign Pastor of shepherds to direct, to govern and to put our flocks in order in such a way that they will be pleasing to His goodness. But as the shepherds doubtless did not go to Him without bringing Him some little lambs, we must not go there empty-handed, either. We must bring Him something. What can we bring to this Divine Shepherd more pleasing than the little lamb which is our love and which is the principal part of our spiritual flock? For love is the first. This special gift is the grace which helps us to attain what would otherwise be impossible for us: the joy and happiness of glory. Thus, in the darkness of the night Our Lord was born and appeared to us as an infant lying in a manger…” (Sermons for Advent and Christmas, p. 53)

What better gift to bring to the manger than to place our love at the service of God and one another? Oh, come, let us adore…and experience a foretaste of the joy and happiness of glory!

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(December 23, 2019: Monday of Fourth Week of Advent)
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“Lift up your heads and see: your redemption is near at hand…”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God displays in a marvelous manner the incomprehensible riches of his power in the vast array of things that we see in nature, but he causes the infinite treasures of his goodness to show forth in an even more magnificent way in the unparalleled variety that we see in grace. In a holy excess of mercy, God is not content in solely with granting to his people, that is, to the human race, a general or universal redemption whereby everyone can be saved. God has diversified redemption in many ways, so that while God’s generosity shines forth in all this variety, the variety itself, in turn, adds beauty to his generosity…” (TLG, II, Chapter 6, p. 116)

What a powerful statement: God’s redemption is not generic; it is not ‘one-size-fits-all.’ God redeems us personally; God redeems us individually; God redeems us by name. In the next-to-last chapter of his Treatise, Francis remarked: “Consider how Jesus took on the task of redeeming us by his death, ‘even to death upon a cross.’ The Savior’s soul knew each of us by name and surname…” (XII, Ch. 121, p. 280)

So, when we say pray the words of the psalmist, “your” redemption means your redemption - not someone else’s, not the redemption of the person to your right or left, not the salvation of folks before or behind you.

Yours!!

So, lift up your head; lift up your heart! See your redemption near at hand…a redemption – a gift – that is crafted specifically for you….out of love for you, for the same God who redeems you by name created you by name.

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(December 24, 2019: Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent)
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“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free…”

On the subject of freedom – of liberty – Francis de Sales wrote:

“Our free will is never as free as when it is a slave to God’s will, just as it is never as servile as when it serves our own will. It never has so much life as when it dies to self, and never so much death as when it lives to itself. We have the liberty to do good and evil, but to choose evil is not to use but to abuse this liberty. Let us renounce such wretched liberty and subject forever our free will to the rule of heavenly love. Let us become slaves to dilection, whose serfs are happier than kings. If our souls should ever will to use their liberty against our resolutions to serve God eternally and without reserve, Oh, then, for love of God, let us sacrifice our free will and make it die to itself so that it may live in God! A man who out of self-love wishes to keep his freedom in this world shall lose it in the next world, and he who shall lose it in this world for the love of God shall keep it for that same love in the next world. He who keeps his liberty in this world shall find it a serf and a slave in the other world, whereas he who makes it serve the cross in this world shall have it free in the other world: for there, when he is absorbed in enjoyment of God’s goodness, his liberty will be converted into love and love into liberty, a liberty infinitely sweet. Without effort, without pain, and without any struggle we shall unchangingly and forever love the Creator and Savior of our souls." (Treatise 12: 10, pp- 277-278) One of the greatest gifts that God gives us is freedom. But in the Salesian tradition, freedom is not about merely having the power to do either good or bad; freedom is not simply the ability to do right or to do wrong. Salesian liberty – the gift of divine freedom – is the power to be our best selves, to be good people, and to do good things…in imitation of the image and likeness of God’s Son and our Brother, Jesus Christ. Francis de Sales observed: “The first thing we ask of God (in the Lord’s Prayer) is that God’s name be hallowed, that his kingdom may come and that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What else can this be but the spirit of liberty?”

How can we practice this heavenly freedom in our relationships with each other on this earth? Francis de sales noted: “In all other things which are neither commanded nor forbidden, let each one abound in one’s own sense: that is, let each person enjoy and use one’s liberty, without judging or interfering with others who do not do as one does, or trying to persuade others that one’s ways are the best.” (Conferences I: p. 13)

Let us be who we are, and be that in perfect freedom. Let us give others the freedom they need to do the same – today!

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(December 24, 2019: Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord)
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“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”

“Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, “generation”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The pursuit of family history tends to be shaped by several motivations, including the desire to carve out a place for one’s family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.” (Wikipedia)

Today’s opening chapter from the Gospel of Matthew is Scripture’s version of Ancestry.com. Bridging the Old and New Testaments, this chapter of Matthew outlines the “genealogy of Jesus Christ.” As such, it carves out a place for Jesus within the larger picture of salvation history. As such, it strives to preserve names from past generations for future generations. As such, it tries to tell the story of Jesus’ predecessors as accurately as possible. As such, it attempts to provide as much information it can about the kinship and pedigree of those who came before Jesus.

Many of us assume that the “genealogy of Jesus Christ” ends with Jesus Christ. We assume that the story ends with the third set of fourteen generations. Nothing could be further from the truth! The “genealogy of Jesus Christ” isn’t limited to the names of his predecessors; it continues to this very day in the names of his followers; it continues in the present generation – in the lives of people like you and me.

How can we live up to our God-given pedigree today? How can we give convincing witness of our divine kinship today? How can we demonstrate that we are sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ – today?

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(December 25, 2019: Nativity of the Lord)
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With regard to the great Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Blessed Louis Brisson wrote:

“We honor the three births of Our Lord. In the case of the first we recall the eternal birth of the Son of God in th3 bosom of His Father; in the second, we recall His temporal birth in the stable of Bethlehem; and in the thirds, we recall His mystical both in our hearts by means of Holy Communion and His grace. The consideration of the first birth should lead us to adore the Son of God on the throne of His glory, in the endless reaches of eternity, where equal to His Father He receives the adoration of the angels and seraphim. By contrast, in Bethlehem we adore him on the throne of poverty, which is a throne of love. He hides his grandeur because he wants us to draw near him without fear.”

“Having adored Him in Heaven – having adored Him in the crib – adore Him present within you. I ask you, cross your arms across your chest where the Savior dwells after Holy Communion and say to Him, ‘I adore You in my heart. I adore You within me. You are as truly in me as You are in Heaven; You are as truly in me as You are truly in the crib where You received the adoration of the poor shepherds. You are truly within me.’” (Cor ad Cor, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)

We recognize Jesus at the right hand of the Father. We recognize Jesus lying in a manger. Do we recognize that same Jesus within ourselves? Do we recognize that same Jesus in others?

Merry Christmas!

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Spirituality Matters December 12th - December 18th

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(December 12, 2019: Our Lady of Guadalupe)
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“You are the highest honor of our race…”

“Today’s celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe marks the appearance of Mary to Juan Diego, a sixteenth-century Mexican peasant. The famous and familiar painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe found on Juan Diego’s cloak reflects the image of the Mother of Salvation in the reading from Revelation: a woman is clothed with the sun’ the moon is under her feet’ she is crowned with the stars…” (Liturgical Press, Loose-Leaf Lectionary for Mass, p. 1618)

There are so many reasons why we hail Mary as “the highest honor of our race…” One of the reasons that Francis de Sales cites is her embodiment of virtue in the midst of all the vicissitudes of life. He wrote:

“In her room at Nazareth she shows her modesty in that she is afraid, her candor in wanting to be instructed and in asking a question, her submission, her humility in calling herself a handmaid. Look at her in Bethlehem: she live simply and in poverty, she listens to the shepherds as though they were learned doctors. Look at her in the company of the kings: she makes no long speeches. Look at her during the time of her purification: she goes to the temple in order to conform to custom. In going to Egypt and returning she is simply obeying Joseph. When she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth she does not consider that she is wasting time doing such a loving act of courtesy. She looks at our Lord not only in joy but in tears. She has compassion on the poverty and confusion of those who invited her to the wedding, meeting their needs. She is at the foot of the cross, full of humility, lowliness, virtue, never drawing any attention to herself in the exercise of these qualities…” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 159)

Mary shows us that the highest honor that we can achieve in life is by living our lives in ways that give honor to God. While we may not be clothed in the sun or have the moon under our feet or be crowned with the stars, we are like Mary in this respect: the ‘Almighty has done great things for us,’ too!

How can our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord today?

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(December 13, 2019: Lucy, Virgin and Martyr)
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“You’re damned if you do; you’re damned if you don’t.”

That statement pretty much sums up the message in today’s Gospel selection from Matthew. John the Baptizer got criticized being aloof and austere; Jesus got criticized for being an accessible, down-to-earth man of the people.

There’s just no pleasing some people.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Does anyone fail to see that the world is an unjust judge, gracious and well-disposed to its own children but rigorous towards the children of God? We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with it. It is so demanding that it can’t be satisfied. ‘John came neither eating or drinking, says the Savior, and you say, ‘He has a devil.’ ‘The Son of Man came eating and drinking,’ and you say he is ‘a Samaritan.’ If we are ready to laugh, play cards or dance with the world in order to please it, it will be scandalized at us, and if we don’t, it will accuse us of hypocrisy or melancholy…” (IDL IV, Ch. 1, p. 236)

You know the old adage: if you try to please everyone, you end up making yourself miserable. On any given day follow the example of both John and Jesus: be who you are, and be that as best as you can.

Come what may!

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(December 14, 2019: John of the Cross, Priest/Doctor of the Church)
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“Let us see your face and we shall be saved.…”

This petition from today’s responsorial psalm would suggest that most days God is somehow hiding his face from us. It might lead us to believe that God doesn’t want to be seen.

Salesian spirituality takes a very different perspective on this notion. It suggests that rather than asking God to show us his face, we should be asking God for the ability to recognize his face in everything and everyone. Francis de Sales wrote:

“God is in all things and in all places. There is no place or thing in this world where he is not truly present. Just as wherever birds fly they always encounter the air, so, too, wherever we go or wherever we are we find God present. Everyone knows this truth but not everyone remembers this truth.” (IDL, Part II, Chapter 2, p. 84)

We human beings often fail to recognize how God is ‘hidden in plain sight.’ We fail to recognize how God is working within us and around us. Look at today’s Gospel: Jesus’ disciples failed to recognize the fact that Elijah had already appeared in the person of John the Baptizer and in John’s ministry. All of the Gospels point out – time and time again – that many people who actually encountered Jesus face-to-face failed to see the face of God in him.

As we continue to prepare ourselves for the Solemnity of the Incarnation – as we look forward to celebrating the great and mysterious day when Jesus showed us the face of God on Christmas – let us ask God for the grace to see his face in ourselves and in one another.

Wherever we are…wherever we go.

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(December 15, 2019: Third Sunday of Advent)
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“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised…”

These words are Jesus’ answer to the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Of course, Jesus’ words are not mere words, because they describe the actions that Jesus is performing, the miracles he is working and the healings that he is effecting on a remarkable level.

How would we answer the question, “Does the love of God dwell within you, or should we look somewhere else?” from other people? Of course, the most powerful and convincing answer wouldn’t come in the form of words, but it would come from our actions - namely, from the practice of virtue. Francis de Sales wrote:

“Let us try sincerely, humbly and devoutly to acquire those little virtues whose conquest our Savior has set forth as the goal of our care and labor. Such are patience, meekness, self-mortification, humility, obedience, poverty, chastity, tenderness toward our neighbors, bearing with their imperfections, diligence and holy fervor.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 2, p. 127)

As we all know, talk is cheap. And so, what kinds of simple, everyday signs might we perform today as signs that “the one who is to come” continues to come to us, each and every day?

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(December 16, 2019: Monday of third Week of Advent)
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“Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis wrote:

“When commanded to go to Rages, young Tobias said to his father, ‘I do not know the way,’ to which his father replied, ‘Go, then, and find some man to lead you.’ I say the same thing to you. Do you seriously wish to travel the road to devotion? If so, look for a good person to guide and lead you. This is the most important of all words of advice. As the devout Teresa of Avila says, ‘Although you seek God’s will, you will never find it with as much certainty as on the path of that humble obedience so highly praised and practiced by all devout writers.’ The advice of the great St. Louis gave to his son was this: ‘Choose as your guide an able and experienced person who can safely teach you the things that you must do.’”

Francis de Sales strongly believed that we should not attempt to ‘go it alone’ in our efforts to imitate Christ, to practice devotion or to “Live Jesus.” Whether in the form of a confessor, a spiritual director, a personal coach, a friend or perhaps a combination of these, we should seek out companions to accompany us along the road of life and avoid the temptation to be lone wolves. He continued:

“‘A faithful friend,’ Holy Scripture says, ‘is a strong defense, and those who find friends have found treasure. A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality, and those who fear the Lord find one.’ For this reason we must above all else have faithful friend who by advice and counsel guides our actions and thus protects us from the snares and deceits of the wicked one. For us such a person will be a treasure of wisdom in affliction, sorrow and failure. Such a person will serve as medicine to ease and comfort our hearts when afflicted by spiritual sickness. Such a person will guard us from evil and make our good even better.” (IDL, Part I, Chapter 4, pp. 45 – 46)

God provides us with many means of support in our attempts to walk in God’s path.

·       How often do we pause and thank our friends for helping us to be the people that God calls us be?

·       How often to we thank our friends for keeping us on the straight and narrow?

·       How often do we tank our friends for picking us up when we fall or for finding us when we stray?

How grateful are we for having companions on the journey?

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(December 17, 2019: Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent)
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“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”

“Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, “generation”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The pursuit of family history tends to be shaped by several motivations, including the desire to carve out a place for one’s family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.” (Wikipedia)

Today’s opening chapter from the Gospel of Matthew is Scripture’s version of Ancestry.com. Bridging the Old and New Testaments, it outlines the “genealogy of Jesus Christ”. As such, it carves out a place for Jesus within the larger picture of salvation history. As such, it strives to preserve names from past generations for future generations. As such, it tries to tell the story of Jesus’ predecessors as accurately as possible. As such, it attempts to provide as much information as possible about the kinship and pedigree of those who came before Jesus.

Many of us assume that the “genealogy of Jesus Christ” ends with Jesus Christ. We assume that the story ends with the third set of fourteen generations. Nothing could be further from the truth! The “genealogy of Jesus Christ” isn’t limited to the names of his predecessors. It continues to this very day in the names of his followers, and it also continues in the present generation – in the lives of people like you and me.

How can we live up to our God-given pedigree today? How can we give convincing witness of our divine kinship today? How can we demonstrate that we are sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ – today?

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(December 18, 2019: Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent)
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“He shall govern your people with justice…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales wrote:

“Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor’s place and your neighbor in yours, and then you will judge rightly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and the buyer when you sell and you will sell and buy justly…A man loses nothing by living generously, nobly and courteously with a royal, just and reasonable heart. Resolve to examine your heart often to see if it acts toward your neighbor as you would like your neighbor to act toward you were you in your neighbor’s place. This is the touchstone of true reason.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)

How can we imitate the Lord who governs with justice? Let us start by examining how our thoughts, feelings and actions impact other people. Are we doing what is right, just and reasonable in our relationships with others?

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Spirituality Matters December 5th - December 11th

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(December 5, 2019: Thursday of the First Week of Advent)
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“A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us."

On this new day on our Advent journey, we listen to these words from Blessed Louis Brisson:

“Father Chevalier, my moral theology professor, used to say to us, ‘Do you believe that Our Lord became human merely to redeem the world? He became human that we might partake of His life, of His body, of His soul, of His divinity and of His happiness.’ And who is this Model, this life and this Happiness - The Word-Made-Flesh Himself!”

“The Savior, Jesus Christ – the One Whom we attempt to reproduce in ourselves and Who is living in us – accomplishes this divine redemption in us. He gives us the grace to do this. He is our Exemplar, our Model. He walks before us. We have only to put our feet in His footprints. Thus, we will bring about our complete redemption.” (Cor ad Cor, pp. 18, 19)

We have a strong city in the person of Jesus Christ! In Christ we find walls and ramparts in which we find not only protection, but also experience “His life, His body, His soul, His divinity and His happiness”.

How might Jesus be inviting us to be a “strong city” in the lives of others? How might we become a source of support and protection for others today and help them to experience the life and happiness rooted in a life in and with Jesus?

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(December 6, 2019: Friday of the First Week of Advent)
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“Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction."

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When some people see the defects of others they feel a certain satisfaction; they preen themselves more with the hope of getting others to admire the contrary good qualities that they mistakenly believe that they possess. Such self-satisfaction may be so secret and imperceptible that a person must have sharp eyes to discover it. And even those infected by it do not recognize it when it is shown to them. To flatter and excuse themselves and soften their own remorse of conscience, others are quite willing to judge their fellow men and women to be guilty of the very vices to which they themselves are addicted or to vices equally great. They think that pointing out the faults of others will somehow make their own less noteworthy. Still other people make a habit of rash judgment because they like to play the philosopher and probe into the moods and morals of others as a means of displaying their presumed intelligence. Sad to say, even if they happen to occasionally be right their rashness and desire so far exceed their insight that they have difficulty turning away from them. To conclude, fear, ambition and other similar mental weaknesses often contribute to the birth of suspicion and rash judgment.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 28, pp. 197-198)

As we prepare once again to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, the season of Advent invites us to turn away from our erring ways and to refrain from the temptation to find faults in others. In addition, what better way is there to celebrate the birth of the Messiah than by changing the ways that we think about ourselves and others than by recognizing – and naming – what is good in ourselves and what is good in others?

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(December 7, 2016: Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church)
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“The Kingdom of heaven is at hand…”

One of the signs that Jesus associates with the Kingdom of heaven being at hand is the driving out demons.

The season of Advent provides each of us with a great opportunity to drive out from our own minds and hearts any number of demons with which we might be plagued. These demons – while they are not necessarily limited to this list – could include:

· Anxieties

· Grudges

· Bitterness

· Resentment

· Old Hurt

· Unresolved conflicts

· Unbridled anger

· Perfectionism

· Scrupulosity

· Negativity

· Ingratitude

· Presumption

The Kingdom of heaven is at hand! Why not make more room in your life for the Word-Made-Flesh by driving out our demons through some heavy duty spiritual house-cleaning between now and Christmas?

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(December 8, 2019: Second Sunday of Advent)
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“The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him…”

In today’s selection from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we hear of the seven gifts associated with the presence and action of the Holy Spirit.

In a sermon given during the last few years of his life to the Sisters of the Visitation Francis de Sales offered the following prayer:

“God grant us his gift of fear, that we might serve him as his dutiful children; his gift of piety, that we might give him due reverence as our loving father; his gift of knowledge, that we may recognize the good we ought to do and the evil we should avoid; his gift of fortitude, that we may bravely overcome all the difficulties we shall meet in trying to be good; his gift of counsel, that we might discern and choose the best ways of living a life of devotion; his gift of understanding, that we may divine the beauty and value of faith’s mysteries and the Gospel principles; and finally, his gift of wisdom, that we may appreciate how lovable God is, that we may experience and thrill to the delight of that goodness of his which is more than our limited minds can fathom. O, the happiness that will be ours if we accept these precious gifts!” (Pulpit and Pew, p. 158)

What are the signs associated with our making good use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Isaiah cites several:

· Not judging by appearance or hearsay

· Judging the poor with justice

· Deciding aright for the afflicted

Today how can you make good use of the Holy Spirit’s gifts today?

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(December 9, 2019: Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
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“She became the mother of all the living…”

In order to fully appreciate the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception – that Mary was preserved from the effects of Original Sin from the moment of her conception – Francis de Sales placed it within the larger context, that is, God’s plan of salvation.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis wrote: “God displays in a marvelous manner the incomprehensible riches of His power in the vast array of things that we see in nature, but God also displays the infinite treasures of His goodness in an even more magnificent way in the unparalleled variety of goods that we recognize in grace. In a holy excess of mercy, God is not content solely with granting to his people, that is, to the human race, a general or universal redemption whereby everyone can be saved. God has diversified redemption in many ways so that while God’s generosity shines forth in all this variety, the variety itself in turn adds beauty to his generosity.”

“First and above all, God destined for his most holy Mother a favor worthy of the love of a Son who, since he is all-wise, all-powerful, and all-good, necessarily prepared a Mother in keeping with himself. Therefore, God willed that his redemption be applied to her in the form of a remedy that would keep her safe, so that the sin which spreads sown from generation to generation would not reach her. As a result, she was redeemed in a surprising way. At the appointed time the torrent of original sin began to roll its fatal waves over the conception of this holy woman (with the same impetuous strength it had exerted at the conception of all Adam’s other daughters): then, when the torrent had reached that point, it did not pass beyond it but stopped…In this way, God turned all captivity away from his glorious Mother. To her God gave the blessing of the two states of human nature: she possessed that innocence which the first Adam had lost, and she surpassingly enjoyed that redemption which the second Adam gained for her. Hence, like a chosen garden that was to bear the fruit of life, she was made the flower of every kind of perfection.” (Book II, Chapter 6)

How was this freedom from the effects of sin displayed in the life of this singularly redeemed woman? Everything that she experienced in life “was used devoutly and faithfully in the service of holy love for the exercise of the other virtues which, for the most part, cannot be practiced except amid difficulty, opposition, and contradiction…The glorious Virgin experienced all human miseries (except such that directly tend to sin) but she used them most profitably for the exercise and increase of the holy virtues of fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence, and of poverty, humility, patience and compassion. Therefore, such things did not hinder heavenly love but on many occasions assisted and strengthened it by continual exercise and advance.” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book VII, Chapter 14)

Whether sinner or sinless, we all have one thing in common with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the “mother of all the living”. We are called to embrace each day as fully as possible with its countless opportunities to practice “fortitude, temperance, justice, prudence, poverty, humility, patience and compassion.” In this we not only experience the freedom of God’s redemption, but also we can more freely be instruments of God’s redemption in the lives of others.

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(December 10, 2019: Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent)
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“Comfort; give comfort to my people, says your God.”

In a commentary on the necessity to “reprint the Gospel,” Blessed Louis Brisson observed:

“The third evangelical task about which I want to speak is the evangelization of the nations - the preaching of Our Lord. Our Lord has come to earth to give us an example, to instruct us and to redeem us by His sufferings. The preaching of the Gospel was one of the principal reasons for His coming. We, therefore, should reprint the Gospel also by our preaching.”

“All of us should preach. Those who work with their hands as well as those who are occupied with exterior works, those who conduct classes as well as those who teach by example, those who direct souls as well as those who are assigned to the ministry of the pulpit - all of us should preach. We should preach in a practical way. We should teach our neighbor, if not by our words, at least by our actions. If you do so, do you think that you will have no influence on those who encounter you?” (Cor ad Cor, p. 30)

Today are you looking for a way to “reprint the Gospel?” Are you interested in doing your part to continue “the evangelization of the nations, the preaching of Our Lord?” Then here is one suggestion that comes directly from our God Himself.

“Comfort; give comfort to my people.”

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(December 11, 2019: Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent)
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“They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar as with eagles’ wings…”

Don’t bother looking around the room at other people’s hands or knees for weakness. We need to look no further than our own hands and knees or, for that matter, our own minds or hearts, our own spirits or psyches, to see the weakness to which the Prophet Isaiah refers in our first reading today.

This isn’t bad news. In fact, it’s very good news! The promise is that God will never “grow faint or weary” when it comes – as Jesus says in today’s Gospel – to giving us rest. Put another way, our weaknesses are not an obstacle to God’s transforming, empowering and inspiring love. In fact, our weaknesses are an entrée to that transforming, empowering and inspiring love. As the Preface for the Eucharistic Prayer for Martyrs reminds us, “God chooses the weak and makes them strong in bearing witness to him…”

Our ongoing need for divine comfort, healing and strength calls to mind Francis de Sales’ teaching on who should approach, celebrate and receive the Eucharist. In his , he wrote: “Two classes of people should communicate frequently: the strong lest they become weak, and the weak that they may become strong; the sick that they may be restored to health, and the healthy lest they fall sick. Tell them that for your part you are imperfect, weak and sick and need to communicate frequently with him who is your perfection and strength…” (Part II, Chapter 21)

Seen with the eyes of faith, all that may wear us down or make us weary should not be cause for shame. In fact, seen with the eyes of God, all that may wear us down and make us weary perfectly prepares us to be sustained, renewed and invigorated by the God who is always with us!

Let us learn from our meek and humble Jesus and as we find comfort and rest in him, let us offer that same comfort and rest as needed to one another.

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Spirituality Matters November 28th - December 4th

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(November 28, 2019: Thanksgiving Day)
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“He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Consider that a certain number of years ago you did not yet exist. God has drawn you out from nothingness so as to make you what you are now and has done so solely out of his own goodness. Consider the nature God has given you. It is the highest in this visible world, is capable of eternal life and able to be perfectly united with God’s Divine Majesty…God has placed you in this world not because God has any need of you but because God wishes to exercise his goodness in you by giving you his grace and glory. For this purpose God has given you intelligence to know him, memory to be mindful of him, will to love him, imagination to picture his benefits to yourself, eyes to see His wonderful works, and tongues to praise him, just to mention a few…Consider the corporeal benefits that God has bestowed on you: the body itself, all goods provided for its maintenance, health, comforts friend, supporters and other helps… By noting each and every particular blessing you will perceive how gentle and gracious God has been to you.” (IDL, Part I, Chapters 9- 11, pp. 53 -57)

How can we possibly even begin to give thanks for everything that God has given – and continues to give – to us? Francis de Sales offers a suggestion: just as God has been gentle and gracious to us, may we strive to be equally – or at least, approximately – as gentle and gracious to others on this Thanksgiving Day…and every day!

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(November 29, 2019: Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week of the Year)
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“Consider the fig tree and all other trees…”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales observed:

“The cross is the root of every grace received by us who are spiritual grafts attached to our Savior’s body. Having been so engrafted if we abide in him, then by means of the life of grace he communicates to us we shall certainly bear the fruit of glory prepared for us. But if we are mere inert sprigs or grafts on that tree - that is, if by resistance we break the progress and effects of His mercy - it will be no wonder if in the end we are wholly cut off and thrown into everlasting fire as useless branches.”

“God undoubtedly prepared paradise only for such as he foresaw would be his. Therefore, let us be his both by faith and by our works, and he will be ours by glory. It is in our power to be his, for although to belong to God is a gift from God, yet it is a gift that God denies to no one. God offers it to all people so as to give it to such as will sincerely consent to receive it. He gives us both his death and his life: his life so that we may be freed from eternal death, his life so that we can enjoy eternal life. Let us live in peace, then, and serve God so as to be his in this mortal life and still more so in life eternal.” (TLG, Part III, Book 5, pp. 178-179)

Francis de Sales insists that our future depends heavily upon our present. At any given moment we can think, feel and act in ways bring us closer to either (1) redemption, or (2) damnation. It all comes down to how deeply grafted we are onto the heart – and the cross – of Christ.

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(November 30, 2019: Andrew, Apostle)
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“At once they followed him...”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas J. Craughwell writes:

“Andrew and his brother Peter were sitting in their fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee, repairing their nets, when Christ called to them, saying, ‘Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Although the brothers did leave their boat to follow the Lord, they never stopped catching fish: it was how they supported themselves and their families.”

“Time and time again the Gospels take us back to the Sea of Galilee: on one occasion, Jesus climbed into Peter and Andrew’s boat to preach to a crowd on the shore; on another, while the brothers and some of the other disciples were out fishing, they saw Jesus advancing toward them by walking on the water. After a long night of fishing and catching nothing, Christ urged the brothers to go out to the deepest part of the sea and lower their nets one more time. This time the catch was so great that the fishing nets broke, and Peter and Andrew had to signal to their fellow apostles and business partners James and John to come help them haul in the fish. And, when there was nothing for the crowd of five thousand to eat, it was Andrew who brought forward a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish, which Christ multiplied to feed the multitude…with much leftover to boot.”

“Tradition says that St. Andrew carried the Gospel to Greece. At the town of Patras, he was arrested and tied to an X-shaped cross. The legend claims that it took him three dies to die, and the entire time he hung on the cross St. Andrew preached to all who passed by.” (p. 179)

Andrew: once a fisherman, always a fisherman. A fisherman doesn’t get to pick the day, time, situations or circumstances in which he fishes. He simply fishes, come what may. A fisherman jumps at the chance to make a catch; he will drop whatever else he might be doing in pursuit of his livelihood. Such an avocation requires tenacity, patience, determination and a willingness to go with the flow. Perhaps that’s Jesus why Jesus called Andrew to become one of his apostles/disciples, because such qualities could come in quite handy when it came to preaching the Good News.

Jesus calls each of us - in our own unique ways - to be fishers of “men.” To what degree does Jesus see in us some of the same qualities that he saw in Andrew?

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(December 1, 2019: First Sunday of Advent)
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“Stay awake!”

In a reflection upon the season of Advent, Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS observed:

“Advent means coming. It is a time set aside to prepare for Christmas. These four weeks of Advent represent the four thousand years which preceded the coming of the Messiah. Throughout these many years the prophets announced the coming of Our Lord.”

“There are two advents of Our Lord. The first is His great advent when he came to this earth to save us. He willed to come to us little, humble and unknown. He was born poor to show us that poverty is no disgrace. He willed to be a working man to teach us to love work as He loved it.”

“The second advent of Our Lord is made in our hearts. Every time that we have a good thought, every time that we take the Good Lord with us, every time that we make an act of fidelity - every time that we tell God that we are all His - an advent takes place. Our Blessed Savior visits our souls.” (Cor ad Cor, p. 13)

As we prepare for Jesus’ first advent in four weeks, we should do our level best to “be vigilant at all times.” We should be on the lookout for the legions of Jesus’ second advents. On any given day many opportunities come our way to have good thoughts, to harbor good feelings, to develop good attitudes and to do goods things, especially with and toward other people.

When these opportunities come – and with them, Jesus himself – will we be ready to receive them? Will we be ready to make good use of them?

Come – O come – Emmanuel!

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(December 2, 2019: Monday of the First Week of Advent)
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“I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”

On day two of our Advent journey toward the Solemnity of the Incarnation, listen to the words of Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS:

“Man sinned and was driven from the earthly paradise. The merciful God promised a Savior, a Redeemer. But God did not tell us what kind of Redeemer he would send to save us. Most of the prophets, in announcing His coming, do not appear to have been concerned with the details. However, in His infinite mercy, God decided that the Redeemer should be none other than the Divine Word itself, His own Eternal Son. He would take our human nature and become one of us in order to make reparation for the offense committed against God, and also to serve as a model for us.” (Cor ad Cor, p. 13)

Clearly, since the fall of Adam and Eve, none of us is worthy to have God enter under our collective roofs. Driven out of Eden, our ancestors no longer felt at home with God. It is, therefore, all the more remarkable that in the fullness of time that God chose to make his home within each and every one of us by taking on our nature in the person of His Son, Jesus. We are no longer strangers or orphans; we have found our new home in Christ.

Today following Jesus’ example, how can each of us make more of a home within our minds, hearts and lives for others?

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(December 3, 2019: Tuesday of the First Week of Advent)
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“The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him…”

In today’s selection from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we hear of the seven gifts associated with the presence and action of the Holy Spirit.

In a sermon preached during the last few years of his life to the Sisters of the Visitation, Francis de Sales offered the following prayer:

“God grant us his gift of fear, that we might serve him as his dutiful children; his gift of piety, that we might give him due reverence as our loving father; his gift of knowledge, that we may recognize the good we ought to do and the evil we should avoid; his gift of fortitude, that we may bravely overcome all the difficulties we shall meet in trying to be good; his gift of counsel, that we might discern and choose the best ways of living a life of devotion; his gift of understanding, that we may divine the beauty and value of faith’s mysteries and the Gospel principles; and finally, his gift of wisdom, that we may appreciate how lovable God is, that we may experience and thrill to the delight of that goodness of his which is more than our limited minds can fathom. O, the happiness that will be ours if we accept these precious gifts! (Pulpit and Pew, p. 158)

What are the signs associated with our making good use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Isaiah cites several:

· Not judging by appearance or hearsay

· Judging the poor with justice

· Deciding aright for the afflicted

Today, how might you make good use of the Holy Spirit’s gifts?

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(December 4, 2019: Wednesday of the First Week of Advent)
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“Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”

On day four of our countdown to Christmas, Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS offers the following reflection:

“The purpose of the Incarnation is the complete remaking of man. It is the sanctification and penetration by God of his soul, his body, of all his actions and of his whole life. O happy fault! The soul then returns to its condition before the Fall; actually, the soul is made even more beautiful and wonderful than it was before the fall.”

“But who has grasped this completely? Who has furnished the means of realizing so admirable a task? Who is it who has found this great means? Who is it who has given the last word, the very last word that will have to be said on this question until the end of time? It is Our Holy Founder [Francis de Sales]. By his doctrine and direction he leads the soul to complete imitation of the Savior and to identification with Him. This is the aim of all his teachings. ”

“Is this Utopia? Is this a dream impossible to realize? No, not at all! What he desires of us he first demonstrated in his own life by the grace of God. Others, directed by him also, have also realized this dream. Others continue to do so still… (Cor ad Cor, p. 16)

Indeed, God has saved us in the person of His Son! God continues to remake us “even more beautiful and wonderful” than we could have been before ‘the fall’. One could even say that God is making each of us the beneficiary of the ‘ultimate makeover’.

How can we help to make God’s dream of a redeemed and renewed humanity in our little corners of the world? How can we imitate and identify with His Son today?

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Spirituality Matters November 21st - November 27th

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(November 21, 2019: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
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“You did not recognize the time of your visitation…”

Have you ever noticed throughout many of the stories in Scripture how it was after God had performed signs and wonders that people recognized that God had been in their midst? While hindsight it better than having no sight at all, there are certain limitations that come with recognizing how God has been active in one’s life only after further reflection. This pattern gets played out time and time again in numerous accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. People frequently did not recognize what Jesus had done for them – or who Jesus had been with them – until after the fact.

It’s safe to say that this occurrence is a common human experience. In a scene from the movie Field of Dreams (1989), Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (played by Burt Lancaster) observes:

“You know, we just don't recognize life's most significant moments while they're happening. Back then I thought, ‘Well, there'll be other days.’ I didn't realize that that was the only day.”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Blind men do not see a prince who is present among them, and therefore they do not show him the respect they owe him until only after being informed oh his presence. However, because they do not actually see him, they easily forget his presence, and having forgotten it, they still more easily lose the respect and reverence owed to him.” (IDL, Part Two, Chapter 2, p. 84)

The aim of the Spiritual Directory – the goal of the Direction of Intention – is to help us to acquire foresight when it comes to recognizing the activity and presence of God in our lives. Through our efforts to anticipate the variety of ways in which God may choose to reveal himself, may we recognize God’s divine activity and presence as it occurs in each and every present moment – whether significant or insignificant – and not only after the fact.

And so, be on the lookout for how God may visit you today!

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(November 22, 2019: Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr)
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“My house shall be a house of prayer…”

This quote from today’s Gospel goes much deeper than talking about a building. This quote has little or nothing to do with why we should be quiet in church. From a Salesian point of view, this quote goes to the heart of what it means to be human.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God is not only in the place where you are, but God is also present in a most particular manner in your heart and in the very center of your spirit. He enlivens and animates it by his divine presence, for he is there as the heart of your heart and the spirit of your spirit. Just as the soul is diffused throughout the entire body and is therefore present in every part of the body but resides in a special manner in the heart, so also God is present in all things but always resides in a special manner in our spirit.” (IDL, Part II, Chapter 2, p. 85)

God dwells in a very particular way within the heart – within the spirit and soul – of each and every one of us. Using the words from the New Roman Missal, notwithstanding that we may be unworthy to have God enter ‘under our roof,’ God is very much alive and at work in the very core of our being, enlivening us and animating us to meet the demands, challenges and invitations that come our way each and every day.

Each us, then, is a house of prayer. Each of us is a manifestation and expression of the God in whose image and likeness we are created. And insofar as prayer is a dialogue, our fundamental vocation is to be engaged in conversation with God as we try our level best to bring out the best in our little corners of the world.

How can we be that house of God today in the lives of one another?

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(November 23, 2019: Blessed Miguel Pro, Priest and Martyr)
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“You have answered well.”

“Born on January 13, 1891 in Guadalupe, Mexico, Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez was, from an early age, both remarkably spiritual and equally mischievousness, frequently exasperating his family with humor and practical jokes. Miguel was particularly close to his older sister and after she entered a cloistered convent, he eventually recognized his own vocation to the priesthood. Although he was popular with the senoritas and had prospects of a lucrative career managing his father's thriving business concerns, Miguel the Jesuit novitiate in El Llano, Michoacan in 1911.

“He studied in Mexico until 1914, when tsunami of anti-Catholicism swept through Mexico, forcing the novitiate to disband. Miguel and his brother seminarians trekked through Texas and New Mexico before arriving at the Jesuit house in Los Gatos, California. In 1915, Miguel was sent to a seminary in Spain; in 1924, he went to Belgium where he was ordained a priest in 1925. Miguel suffered from a severe stomach problem and after three operations, when his health did not improve, his superiors, in 1926, allowed him to return to Mexico despite the grave religious persecution in that country.”

“Back in his native land, churches were closed, and priests went into hiding. Miguel spent the rest of his life in an attempt to sturdy and strengthen Mexican Catholics. In addition to fulfilling their spiritual needs, he also carried out works of mercy by trying to meet the temporal needs of the poor in Mexico City. To protect his real identity, he used a number of disguises while carrying out his clandestine ministry. He would arrive in the middle of the night dressed as a beggar to baptize infants, bless marriages and celebrate Mass. He would appear in jail dressed as a police officer to bring Holy Viaticum to condemned Catholics. When going to fashionable neighborhoods to procure money food and other resources for the poor, he would show up at the doorstep dressed as a fashionable businessman with a fresh flower on his lapel. Falsely accused in the attempted assassination of a former Mexican president, Miguel became a hunted man. Betrayed to the police by an informer, he was sentenced to death without the benefit of any legal process. On the day of his execution (which the Mexican president personally ordered to have photographed and filmed), Fr. Pro forgave his executioners, prayed, refused the blindfold and died proclaiming, ‘Viva Cristo Rey.’” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=86)

Miguel Pro not only answered well to God’s invitation for him to help his fellow citizens who were most in need, but he also answered courageously!

How might we imitate his example just this day in our attempts to answer God’s call in our own lives by serving the needs of others?

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(November 24, 2019: Solemnity of Christ the King)
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“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

St. Francis de Sales tells us in the Introduction to the Devout Life:

“Consider the eternal love that God has borne you. Before our Lord Jesus Christ as man suffered on the Cross for you, His Divine Majesty by His Sovereign Goodness already foresaw your existence and loved you exceedingly.” (Introduction, Part V, Chapter 14)

Tempted as he was by the voices around him to use his kingly power for his own relief or benefit, Jesus spent his last moments –– his few remaining breaths –– for the good of others. It was with love that he promised paradise to the Good Thief who spoke words of humility and contrition.

On this feast of the Kingship of Christ, the Church presents us with two images: David, the shepherd-warrior, anointed by his people to be their king and Jesus, the only true king, rejected by the people, crucified and ridiculed. In David the kingship of Israel was established so that from it could come the Redeemer of all peoples. But how did Jesus live out his call to be king? According to St. Francis de Sales it was by “the perfect abandonment into the hands of the heavenly Father and this perfect indifference in whatever is his divine will.” (St. Francis de Sales Sermons for Lent, Good Friday, 1622)

To Jesus, being king meant being one with his Father. He lived in perfect union with God. As Paul tells us in the letter to the Colossians, “He is the image of the invisible God.” To Jesus, being king meant giving all for others. He gave his all to each person at every moment. We see this in his words to the repentant criminal on the Cross: Jesus spoke only of mercy and acceptance.

We are called to do the same. As Christians our first care must be union with our God: “Lord, it is good for me to be with you, whether you be upon the Cross or in your glory.” (Introduction, Part IV, Chapter XIII) St. Francis de Sales tells us in the Treatise on the Love of God: “Mount Calvary is the mount of lovers.” (Book XII, Chapter XIII) After the example of our King, we must speak words of mercy and acceptance. Like Jesus, we are not called to condemn or reject but only to love.

St. Leonie Aviat lived the humble, self-giving life portrayed in today’s Scriptures. She recognized and experienced the meaning of authentic royalty, of royal power: spending one’s life with God for others. As a young founder of a religious community, the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, Mother Aviat pledged to “forget myself entirely” and to “work for the happiness of others.” The call to follow Christ resounded in her every word and act, as she worked to give people here on earth a foretaste of the paradise that Christ promises to all those who remember him.

Perhaps that’s the point. What better way to ask God to remember us when he comes into his kingdom than by reminding ourselves of the presence of God in each day, hour and moment here and now? What better way to join Christ in paradise than by remembering to reach out to others here on earth?

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(November 25, 2019: Monday, Thirty-fourth week of the Year)
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“She has offered her whole livelihood…”

In a conference to the Sisters of the Visitation, Francis de Sales observed:

“The esteem in which humility holds all good gifts, namely, faith hope and charity, is the foundation of generosity of spirit. Take notice that the first gifts of which we spoke belong to the exercise of humility and the others to generosity. Humility believes that it can do nothing, considering its poverty and weakness as far as depends on ourselves. On the contrary, generosity makes us say with St. Paul, ‘I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.’ Humility makes us distrust ourselves, whereas generosity makes us trust in God. You see, then that humility and generosity are so closely joined and united to one another that they are and never can be separated.” (Conferences, “On Generosity” pp. 75-76)

We see this humility and generosity on display in today’s Gospel. Whereas some wealthy people who contributed to the temple treasury were relying more on themselves for their welfare (they made sure that they had plenty for themselves in reserve) before giving to others, the poor widow – we are told – gave to the treasury without squirreling something away for herself first, suggesting that she was relying more on God for her welfare. The wealthy contributed with conditions; the widow contributed without conditions.

Today, whether we have a lot or a little, what steps can we take to store up riches less for ourselves and more for others?

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(November 26, 2019: Tuesday, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“When you hear of wars and insurrections do not be terrified…”

In this age of 24-7 news cycles, one could be forgiven for being “terrified” from time to time. After all, we never seem to get a break. Whether around the corner or around the world, we are constantly exposed to a never-ending dose of unsettling news reports: stories of violence, accounts of revenge and descriptions of disasters. One could make the argument that you would have to be crazy to be unconcerned or unaffected by reports of economic, social, political and/or military turmoil!

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil than can happen to a soul. Just as sedition and internal disorders bring total ruin to a state and leave it helpless to resist a foreign invader, so also if our hearts are inwardly troubled and disturbed they lose both the strength necessary to maintain the virtues they had acquired and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy. He then uses his utmost to fish – as they say – in troubled waters.” (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 11, pp. 251-252)

Francis de Sales believed that people should be informed. We should be aware – and where applicable, concerned – about the things that are happening around us. More importantly, however, is the need to know what is happening inside of us. We need to know the state of our mind and heart. After all, sometimes the effects of the “wars and insurrections” that may surround us are nothing in comparison with the “wars and insurrections” that rage within us!

Trouble is a part of life. Don’t make it worse by allowing it to trouble you on the inside to the point where you can’t manage it on the outside - for your own sake, as well as for the sake of those who depend on you.

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(November 27, 2019: Wednesday, Thirty-fourth Week Ordinary Time)
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“Give glory and eternal praise to him...”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“The soul that takes great pleasure in God’s goodness…desires that His name be always more and more blessed, exalted, praised, honored and adored. In this praise due to God the soul begins with its own heart...The soul imitates the great Psalmist who considered the marvels of God’s goodness, and then on the altar of his heart immolated a mystic victim: the utterances of his voice in hymns of psalms of admiration and blessings.” (Living Jesus, p. 286)

When’s the last time you gave “glory and eternal praise” to God for everything that God does in your life and in the lives of others? How can you bless, exalt, praise, honor and adore God for his goodness today?

Not just in words, but also in deeds!

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Spirituality Matters 2019: November 14th - November 20th

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(November 14, 2019: Thursday, Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time)
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“The Kingdom of God is among you…”

In today’s Gospel we hear: “Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, ‘The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ The Kingdom of God is among you.”

Jesus seems to be saying that the Kingdom of God isn’t about finding one a thing, place or location. In the context of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God is a person - in this case, the person of Jesus Christ.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“God is in all things and in all places. There is no place or thing in this world in which God is not truly present. Just as wherever birds fly, they always encounter the air, so also wherever we go or wherever we are we find God present.”

He continued:

“God is not only in the place where you are but also in a most particular manner in your heart – in the very center of your spirit. Just as the soul is diffused throughout the entire body but resides in a special manner in the heart, so, too, God is present in all things but always resides in a special manner in our spirit.” (IDL, Part Two, Chapter 2, pp. 84-85)

So, where would you expect to find the Kingdom of God today? Try looking for it in the Body of Christ - look for it within yourself and look for it within others.

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(November 15, 2019: Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor)
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“From the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author is seen.”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“I ask you to imagine on the one hand an artist engaged in painting a picture of our Savior’s birth. No doubt he will give the picture thousands of touches with his brush and take not only days but weeks and months to complete it with various persons and other objects that he wishes to portray in it. On the other hand, let us look at a print maker. After he has placed a sheet of paper on the plate with the same mystery of the Incarnation engraved upon it, he gives it only a single stroke of the press, and in this one stroke he will complete the entire task. In an instant the printer will draw off a picture representing in a beautiful engraving all that has been imaged as described in sacred history. Although the printer has created it in but one single movement, his work likewise contains many great persons and various other objects, each one clearly distinct in order, rank, place distance and proportion. If one were not acquainted with the secret of the work, he or she would be greatly astonished to see so many varied effects from a single act.”

“In the same way, nature like a painter multiplies and diversifies its acts accordingly as it has various works in hand: it takes a long time to complete its great effects. But God, like a printer, has given existence to all the different creatures - which have been are, or ever shall be – from one powerful stroke of his all-powerful will. From his idea, as from a well-cut plate, he draws his marvelous distinction of persons and other things that succeed one another in seasons, ages and times, each one in its order as they were destined to be.” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 2, Chapter 9, pp. 105-106)

What can we say about God based upon what we see in the greatness and beauty of creation? (1) Variety is the spice of life, and (2) all things bright and beautiful take time.

How might we take some time just this day to consider the greatness and beauty of creation, to say nothing of the greatness and beauty of the God who created it?

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(November 16, 2019: Margaret of Scotland)
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“Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says…”

And what did the unjust judge say? Essentially, he said this: “I will do justice to this woman just to get her off my back.”

Have you every done something good simply to get someone else to stop bugging you? Have you ever done the right thing just to get someone else to go away? Have you ever done the just thing just to get someone else to shut up?

Let’s face it. Isn’t it true that sometimes we do the right thing for a less-than-admirable motive?

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Let us purify all our intentions as best we can. Since we can diffuse throughout all various acts to sacred motive of divine love, why should we not do so? On all occasions we will reject every kind of vicious motive, such as vainglory and self-interest, and consider all the good motives we can have for undertaking the act before us so as to choose the motive of holy love - which is the most excellent of all – and to flood it over all other motives, steeping them in the greatest motive of all....” (TLG, Book XI, Book 14, p. 237)

One might ask, “So, am I supposed to wait until my motives are totally pure before I attempt to do something right?” Lord knows that if that were the case, then the world would really be out of luck! In a perfect world we would always do what is good, righteous and just for only good, righteous and just reasons. But insofar as this is an imperfect world, we should not cease our attempts to do what is good for goodness sake; rather, we should acknowledge the need to purify our intentions even as we struggle to live our lives with other people in a reasonable, just and equitable manner.

May God give us the courage we need just this day to not only do the right thing but also to do the right thing for the right reason!

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(November 17, 2019: Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“For you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Psalm 111: 10) However, as the Psalmist reminds us, this fear of the Lord (which is directly equated with the acquisition of wisdom) is merely the beginning - it must lead to “following God’s precepts,” i.e., it must lead to action.

In other words, fear of the Lord’s name must lead to doing the Lord’s work!

As we hear in today’s second reading, St. Paul certainly knew this: “You know how you ought to imitate us. We did not live lives of disorder…rather, we worked day and night, laboring to the point of exhaustion…indeed, anyone who would not work should not eat.”

This fear of the Lord – this fear of God’s name – is not meant to paralyze us. No, it is clearly meant to motivate us, to get us moving, to get us working – individually and collectively – in pursuing the precepts of the Lord and of building up the Kingdom of God. Put another way, fear of the Lord should not make us passive, but rather, proactive.

This truth should be obvious. However, just the opposite message may be (however unintentionally) conveyed when we consider the lives and legacies of the saints who, among other things, clearly feared the name of the Lord:

“When we think of holy men and women throughout the ages, we often recall sculptures, drawings and paintings in which the saints look anything but active. Our most active and energetic saints are sometimes pictured doing nothing more strenuous than holding a lily or gazing piously heavenward. And while these images can be moving and inspiring, and helpful for times of contemplation, if one is searching for models of action and energy, they can hold somewhat less appeal.” (James Martin, SJ in Patrons and Protectors: More Occupations by Michael O’Neill McGrath)

It is in this light that James Martin writes:

“Perhaps the most overlooked fact from Christian history is that Jesus worked. We can easily envision Jesus being instructed by Saint Joseph, the master carpenter. In Joseph’s workshop in Nazareth, Jesus would have learned about the raw materials of his craft...Joseph would have taught his apprentice the right way to drive a nail with a hammer, to drill a clean, deep hole in a plank, to level a ledge or a lintel.” (Ibid)

And who could have feared the name of the Lord – and followed God’s precepts – more clearly and convincingly than Jesus? Gregory Pierce suggests that we need to see, and experience work as “all the effort (paid or unpaid) we exert to make the world a better place, a little closer to the way God would have things.” (Spirituality@Work, page 18)

Work—God’s work—is indeed our lot in life, our reason for being, our purpose for living. As we see in the life of Jesus himself, this work can be tiring, laborious and frustrating. Still, what could be more rewarding than using all our energies to make all our little corners of the world places in which “the sun of justice” can arise in the hearts and minds of our brothers and sisters? Fear of the Lord is, ultimately, an invitation – no, a command – to do the work of the Lord.

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(November 18, 2019: Rose Philippine Duchesne)
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“Lord, please let me see…”

“Rose Philippine Duchesne was the daughter of Pierre-Francois Duchesne, an eminent lawyer, and her mother, Rose Euphrosine Perier, who was a member of the well-known Perier family. She was educated by the sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary; at the age of 19 she (without her family’s approval) subsequently joined the community. Rose witnessed the Visitation’s dispersion in 1792 during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. She attempted to re-establish of the convent of Ste-Marie-d'en-Haut, near Grenoble without success, and in 1804, she accepted the offer of Mother Barat to receive her Visitation community into the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1815, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne established a Sacred Heart community in Paris.”

“In 1818, Rose Philippine Duchesne sailed for America with several other members of the Society. They arrived in New Orleans and traveled the Louisiana territory via the Mississippi River, ending up in St. Charles, Missouri, near St Louis, where she established the first house of the Society ever built outside of France in a log cabin. By the year 1828, six houses had been added in America including a foundation serving the Potawatomi tribe in a portion of the Louisiana Territory that would eventually become (in 1861) the state of Kansas. In time the Native Americans referred to her as the “Woman Who Prays Always.”

“Inspired by the stories of Belgian Father Pierre De Smet, S.J., Duchesne was determined to expand the Society into the Rocky Mountains, but illness forced her to return to St. Charles, where she spent the last ten years of her life, dying at the age of 83. She was canonized on July 3, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=377)

The Lord helped Rose Philippine Duchesne to see that the end of her local Visitation community did not mean the end of her having a purpose in life; in fact, it was a new beginning. As it turned out, her initial misfortune paved the way for a long and fruitful ministry in places and with people that could only have happened if she had a reason to leave Grenoble. No doubt that Rose eventually came to see that in closing one door in her life God subsequently opened a window.

And a big window at that!

Today, when a misfortune, disappointment or setback comes our way, do we – like Rose Philippine Duchesne - have the courage to see them through the eyes of faith?

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(November 19, 2019: Tuesday, Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time)
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“And he came down quickly and received him with joy…”

The story of Jesus and Zacchaeus highlights one aspect of the Salesian notion of devotion: enthusiasm. Jesus only has to tell Zacchaeus once to “come down quickly.” For his part, Zacchaeus came down as quickly as he could!

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When charity reaches a degree on perfection at which it not only makes us do good but also to do this carefully, frequently and promptly. It is called devotion. Ostriches never fly; hens fly in a clumsy fashion, near the ground and only on occasion; but eagles, doves and swallows fly aloft, swiftly and frequently. Good people who have not as yet attained this devotion by toward God by their good works but do so infrequently, slowly and awkwardly. Devout souls fly to him more frequently, promptly and with lofty flights.” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 4, p. 64)

These words certainly describe Zacchaeus to a tee. Here is a man with a great sense of urgency. He literally flew down to Jesus at the invitation to spend time with him. Once he arrived at his home with Jesus, Zacchaeus was just as quick to declare his intention to share his good fortune with those less fortunate than he as well as to make things right with anyone who might have a grievance against him.

How quick will we be this day to respond to Jesus’ invitation to spend time with us? How quick will we be this day to share our good fortune with others? How quick will we be this day to make things right with anyone who might have a grievance against us?

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(November 20, 2019: Wednesday, Thirty-second Week Ordinary Time)
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“To everyone who has, more will be given.”

Everyone who has…what?” Perhaps it’s the courage to take the risks that come with saying “yes” to develop our God-given gifts and talents!

In today’s Gospel two of the three servants took a risk when they invested what their master had entrusted to them. As a result, they were able to make a return on their master’s investment with salutatory results. By contrast, the third servant – afraid that he might lose what his master had entrusted to him – played it safe by simply sitting on what he had received.

With dire results.

Today’s parable illustrates God’s impatience regarding inaction brought about by fear: fear of failure and - perhaps sometimes - even fear of success. From Jesus’ point of view, it is far better to risk everything and lose rather than to never risk at all for fear of losing. After all, as we see so clearly in the life of Jesus, he was not only willing to risk it all out of love for his Father and for us – he actually did. And by risking everything, God raised Jesus from the dead.

Consider what God has entrusted to you. Consider what God has invested in you. Are you going to simply sit on God’s blessings, or are you going to get off your – uh, rear – and do your level best to make a return on God’s investment in you today?

Trust in God – take a risk – and make good use of the gifts that God has given you for your own good, and for the good of others!

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Spirituality Matters 2019: November 7th - November 13th

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(November 7, 2019: Thursday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)
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“There will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents...”

Whence comes all this rejoicing over repentant sinners? In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God’s favor floats over all life’s difficulties and finds joy in turning all miseries to the greater profit of those who love him. From toil he makes patience spring forth, contempt of this world from inevitable death, and from concupiscence a thousand victories. Just as the rainbow touches the thorn of aspalathus and makes it smell sweeter than the lily, so our Savior’s redemption touches our miseries and makes them more beneficial and worthy of love than original innocence could ever have been. The angels, says our Savior, have ‘more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just who have no need of repentance.’ So, too, the state of redemption is a hundred times better than that of innocence. Truly, by the watering of our Savior’s blood – made with the hyssop of the cross – have been restored to a white incomparably better than that possessed by the snows of innocence. Like Naaman, we come out of the stream of salvation more pure and clean than if we had never had leprosy.” (TLG, Book II Chapter 6, pp. 116 – 177)

“Redemption is a hundred times better than innocence.” Given the fact that all of us suffer from the leprosy of sin in any number of ways, not only should the power of repentance make for rejoicing among the angels in heaven, but this repentance should also produce even greater rejoicing among us here on earth! Who else but God could have the power to turn our sins into a means of our salvation?

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(November 8, 2019: Friday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)
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“I myself am convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness…”

Am I good, or am I evil? Your answer to this question is no mere theoretical or abstract discussion. In the Salesian tradition, at least, the question – and its answer – makes all the difference between life and death. If you believe that you are good, odds are that you will think, feel, believe and behave in ways that lead to life. By the same token, if you believe that you are evil, well – not surprisingly – you will in all likelihood think, feel, believe and behave in a way that leads to death.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Consider that a certain number of years ago you were not yet in the world and that your present being was truly nothing. The world had already existed for a long time, but of us there was as yet nothing. God has subsequently drawn you out of nothingness to make you what you are, and God has done so solely out of his own goodness. Consider the nature God has given to you. It is the highest in this visible world. It is capable of eternal life and of being perfectly united to his Divine majesty.” (IDL, Part One, Chapter 9, p. 53)

During the 1970’s it was quite popular to say, “God doesn’t make junk.” While not exactly high theology, it does get to the heart of the Salesian understanding of human nature. To use the words of St. Paul, we humans – all of us – are “full of goodness.” As members of the Salesian family, we know that being good and having good are not the same things as doing good. We all fail to live up to our God-given goodness. We all fail to put our goodness into action. We all fall short when it comes to recognizing and sharing our goodness.

In other words, as good as we may be, we sometimes do bad things.

Remind yourself throughout this day that God has made you a good person – after all, you are made in God’s very own image and likeness. In like manner remind yourself throughout the day to ask for the grace you need to share that goodness with others.

Paul was convinced that you are good. Are you?

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(November 9, 2019: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica)
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“You are God’s building...”

To construct a building is one thing, but to maintain it is another. Prudent builders/owners not only allot resources for the actual construction of whatever it is they build, but they will also earmark resources for the ongoing upkeep of the building.

In a letter to Madame de Chantal (February 11, 1607), Francis de Sales observed:

“It is not necessary to be always and at every moment attentive to all the virtues in order to practice them; that would twist and encumber your thoughts and feelings too much. Humility and charity are the master beams - all the others are attached to them. We need only hold on to these two: one is at the very bottom and the other at the very top. The preservation of the whole building depends on two things: its foundation and its roof. We do not encounter much difficulty in practicing other virtues if we keep our heart bound to the practice of these two...” (LSD, pp. 148-149)

God – the Master Builder – has constructed each of us in his image and likeness. Celebrate the building-of-God that you are! Maintain the gift of your divinely-built edifice with the spiritual foundation and roof most readily available for your good - humility and charity!

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(November 10, 2019: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Some Sadducees came forward to pose this question to Jesus.”

Questions played an important role in Jewish theological, religious, political and cultural life. The so-called “Rabbinical method” presumed that the best way to come to know the truth was to learn to raise the right questions.

Elie Wiesel –– author, scholar, and holocaust survivor –– notes this method of learning in the opening pages of his book Night. In it, Wiesel’s mentor explained to him “with great insistence that every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer.” (Bantam Books, 1960)

There is power in a question. There is promise in a question. There is possibility in a question.

Understanding this method of learning sets the context for today’s selection from Luke’s Gospel. The question of the Sadducees regarding marriage and the afterlife (not unlike the question posed by the chief priests and scribes - regarding paying taxes to Caesar - in the immediately-preceding verses) may not have been merely an attempt to trip up Jesus or to discredit him. This question may also have been a legitimate desire to settle an ongoing dispute between the Sadducees and the Pharisees (both groups religious leaders in their own rite) who disagreed on a variety of issues.

As so many times before, however, they did not like, understand or accept Jesus’ answer.

Herein lies the tragedy.

The scribes, the priests, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were all raised in a culture that viewed questions as the path to mystical truth. Ironically, they may have had the most to gain from Jesus –– the embodiment of all mystical truth –– precisely because they had so many encounters with him, perhaps more than any other groups mentioned in the Gospel combined! Sad to say, it appears that they consistently asked the wrong questions: shortsighted questions, self-serving questions, disingenuous or insincere questions, and they asked all these questions with a pre-determined answer in mind.

When asked why he prayed every day, Elie Wiesel’s mentor responded: “I pray to the God within me that God will give me the strength to ask the right questions.”

How often in our daily lives with Jesus and with one another do we ask for, desire or demand answers? How much energy do we invest in wanting to know the bottom line? Yet, for all our efforts, are we any closer to knowing the things that really matter, the concerns of earth that lead to the things of heaven? Why does our understanding of Jesus’ will for us, of his desire for us, and of his longing and love for us sometimes seem so elusive?

Could it be that we, too, are failing to ask the right questions?

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(November 11, 2019: Martin of Tours, Bishop)
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“Love justice, you who judge the earth…”

In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just city state:

“Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the competing parts of a person or a city. Hence Plato's definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is one's own. A just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received. This applies both at the individual level and at the universal level.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice)

We probably don’t think about it very often, but each of us in our own way is called to judge. However, deliberately or unconsciously, the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions we form every day impacts the earth, even only if it’s in our little corners of it. That said, our collective ways of judging – and treating – the earth add up over time.

The Book of Genesis reminds us that we are not only on the receiving end of Creation, but we are also cooperators in Creation – we have an active, ongoing role to play in Creation. In the Roman Missal we hear:

“You laid the foundations of the world and have arranged the changing of times and seasons; you formed man in your own image and set humanity over the whole world in all its wonder, to rule in your name over all you have made and for ever praise you in your mighty works, through Christ our Lord.”

Teddy Roosevelt is quoted as having once defined justice as ‘doing the best you can where you are with what you’ve got.’

How best can we apply those words in our attempt to do justice to the earth – and especially in our relationships with those sharing the earth with us – just today?

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(November 12, 2013: Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr)
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“God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them.”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales observed:

“God has signified to us in so many ways and by so many means that he wills all of us to be saved that no one can be ignorant of this fact. For this purpose, he made us ‘in his own image and likeness’ by creation, and by the Incarnation he has made himself in our image and likeness.” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 4, p. 64)

In effect, Francis de Sales claimed that while it would have been enough for God to show us how deeply he loved us by creating us in his own image and likeness, God loves us so much that he went even further by choosing – in the person of his Son – to create himself in our image and likeness!

Francis de Sales claims, “No one can be ignorant of this fact.” Perhaps not ignorant, but how often do we really think about that? How much time will we spend reflecting upon “this fact” – that we are made in his image and likeness and that he is made in our image and likeness – just this day?

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(November 13, 2019: Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin and Religious)
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"The Lord of all shows no partiality, because he himself made the great as well as the small, and he provides for all alike…”

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the types of people that God invites to do great things in his name. Be they men or women, famous or obscure, wealthy or wanting, powerful or penniless, God uses people of all shapes and sizes and in all situations to be instruments of his will.

The life of Frances Xavier Cabrini is a great example of how one seemingly small person can do great things for God.

“St. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.”

“One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.”

“Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death in Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute had houses in England, France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII. St. Frances is the patroness of immigrants.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=278)

As great or as small as we may be, Jane de Chantal reminds us that “nothing is small in the service or God.”

How might we be of service to God and neighbor today?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: October 31st - November 6th

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(October 31, 2019: Thursday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Trick or treat!!!”

“Trick-or-treating or guising is a customary practice for children on Halloween in many countries. Children wearing costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats such as candy (or, in some cultures, money) with the question ‘Trick or treat?’ The ‘trick’ is a (usually idle) threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given to them. In North America, trick-or-treating became an ever-growing phenomenon Halloween tradition in the years following the lifting in 1947 of nationwide sugar rationing that had occurred during WWII.”

“The tradition of going from door to door receiving food already existed in Great Britain and Ireland in the form of ‘souling’, where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes. Guising, that is, children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food and coins also predates trick-or-treating, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895, where masqueraders - in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips - visited homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish, the North American custom of saying "trick or treat" has become the norm.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating)

(NOTE: in the United States Halloween has become one of the most popular social events for adults, second only to News Years Eve.)

Many of us will be opening our doors countless times tonight for little ghosts, ghouls and goblins who are wearing disguises and hoping for treats. Isn’t it reassuring that when we approach God in prayer for the many good things that we seek on behalf of ourselves or others that we don’t need to be disguised – that we don’t need to wear masks – that we don’t need to pretend to be something or someone we’re not? Isn’t it wonderful that we can simply be who we are on this earth without the need to hide our faces from a God who loves us for who we are?

Of course, there’s no ‘trick’ to expressing our gratitude to a God who loves us for who we are. The best way is to ‘treat’ others in the same way, that is, to love them not for who they aren’t, but to love them for who they are!

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(November 1, 2019: Solemnity of All Saints)
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“He began to teach them...”

In her book entitled Saint Francis de Sales and the Protestants (in which she examines his missionary activity in the Chablais, one of the most seminal periods in the life of the “Gentleman Saint”), author Ruth Kleinman wrote:

“Saintliness is hard to practice, but it is even more difficult to describe.” A notable exception to this dictum are the words we hear proclaimed today in the Gospel of Matthew on this Solemnity of All Saints.

Jesus describes saintliness simply and succinctly. It is about living a life of Beatitude:

• Saintly are those who mourn, i.e., those who refuse to harden their hearts when faced with the needs of others.

• Saintly are those who show mercy, i.e., those who are willing to forgo old hurts and to forgive others from their hearts.

• Saintly are those who are poor in spirit, i.e., those who experience everything as a gift and who demonstrate their gratitude through their willingness to share what they have (regardless of how ordinary or extraordinary) with others.

• Saintly are the pure of heart, i.e., those who avoid artificiality and pretense and who have the courage to be their true, authentic selves.

• Saintly are the meek, i.e., those who know that power isn’t demonstrated by taking from others but about giving to others. It’s not about doing to others but about doing for/with others.

• Saintly are the peacemakers, i.e., those who bring people together rather than drive them apart.

• Saintly are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, i.e., those for whom doing good comes with the same frequency and urgency as the need to eat and drink.

• Saintly are those persecuted for doing what is right, i.e., those who are willing to stand up for what is right regardless of the cost(s) incurred.

And as it turns out, not only is sanctity not hard to describe, but also it isn’t nearly as hard to practice as we might think. In a sermon on Our Lady, Francis de Sales observed:

“There is no need of putting ourselves to the trouble of trying to find out what are the desires of God, for they are all expressed in His commandments and in the counsels of Our Lord Himself gave us in the Sermon on the Mount when He said: ‘How blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the lowly, and the other Beatitudes.’ These are all the desires of God upon which we ought to walk, following these as perfectly as we can.” (Select Salesian Subjects, #0170, p. 37)

Sanctity? To be sure, it is hard work. But with the grace of God – and the support of one another – it is doable!

And - of course - with one another.

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(November 2, 2019: Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed)
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“The souls of the just are in the hands of God...”

In one of his pamphlets that was later published in a broader collection entitled The Catholic Controversy, Francis de Sales wrote:

“We maintain that we may pray for the faithful departed, and that the prayers and good works of the living greatly relieve them and are profitable to them for this reason: that all those who die in the grace of God – and consequently, in the number of the elect – do not go to Paradise at the very first moment, but many go to Purgatory…from which our prayers and good works can help and serve to deliver them.”

“We agree the blood of Our Redeemer is the true purgatory of souls, for in it are cleansed all the souls of the world. Tribulations also are a purgatory, by which our souls are rendered pure, as gold refined in the furnace. It is well known that Baptism in which our sins are washed away can be called a purgatory, as everything can be that serves to purge away our offenses. But in this context we take Purgatory for a place in which after this life the souls which leave this world before they have been perfectly cleansed from the stains they have contracted. And if one would know why this place is called simply Purgatory more than are the other means of purgation above-named, the answer will be, that it is because in that place nothing takes place but the purgation of the stains which remain at the time of departure out of this world, whereas in Baptism, Penance, tribulations and the rest, not only is the soul purged from its imperfections, but it is further enriched with many graces and perfections. And agreeing as to the blood of Our Lord, we fully acknowledge the virtue thereof, that we protest by all our prayers that the purgation of souls – whether in this world or in the other – is made solely by its application.” (CC, pp. 353-354)

Notwithstanding the effects of our prayers and good works on behalf of our dearly departed, Francis de Sales reminds us that at the end of the day it is the life and death of Jesus Christ that purifies our souls, whether in this life or in the next. To that end, whether it’s the just or the unjust, whether it’s in this world or the next, we are all in the hands of God.

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(November 3, 2019: Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“…You have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made…your imperishable spirit is in all things!”

The author of our reading from Wisdom gives grateful thanks to God for his gentleness, patience, and mercy. The Lord loves all that he has made. All creation is meant, as the reading from Thessalonians reminds us, to glorify God, its loving Creator. Indeed, all of creation bears the imperishable spirit of the One who has loved it into life.

Our offenses, our failures to give glory to God, are not to be denied, nor are they to weigh us down and keep us from moving forward, from being called forth anew by God. We are meant to bear the image of the God who created us in love. In his Treatise on the Love of God, De Sales writes, “Consider the nature God has given to you. It is the highest in this visible world; it is capable of eternal life and of being perfectly united to his Divine Majesty.” [Treatise 1:1]

When we fail, God gently calls us back into right relationship. The call is an invitation, not a demand, and we respond to that invitation in freedom. Psalm 145 praises God who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.” Since God is gentle and patient with us, so, too, we must be gentle and patient with ourselves. De Sales captures these qualities in the Introduction to the Devout Life: “When we have committed some fault if we rebuke our heart by a calm, kind remonstrance, with more compassion for it than passion against it and encourage it to make amendment, then repentance conceived in this way will sink far deeper and penetrate more effectually than fretful, angry, and stormy repentance.” [Introduction III.9] With this gentleness and patience, we reflect the love of God and, in the words of our reading from Thessalonians, we give glory to our loving Creator.

Our Gospel story puts flesh and blood on the qualities of repentance, gentleness and mercy. Jesus reaches out, looking up into the tree and calling to Zacchaeus rather than waiting for Zacchaeus to climb down and approach him. Jesus seeks the “lost” Zacchaeus and, by coming to where Zacchaeus lives, invites him back into a relationship of love. Zacchaeus repents in a true spirit of humility. He accepts the gentle invitation in freedom. Without being coerced, he offers reparation.

Gentleness, patience and mercy are qualities of God that we, as creatures who bear his image, are called to reflect. When we witness them in human relationships, we catch glimpses of our creating, redeeming and inspiring God -- alive and smiling -- here on earth.

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(November 4, 2019: Charles Borromeo, Bishop)
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“The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable…”

At the risk of being politically incorrect, God is not an “Indian giver.” (For the record, “Indian-giver” has nothing to do with the Indians reneging on a promise – it has to do with a government that gave all kinds of things to Native Americans only to rescind them later.) Unlike human institutions, when God gives gifts, they are non-refundable. They cannot be returned. They cannot be traded in. They must be used.

In today’s Gospel, we hear that one of the best ways to make use of your God-given gifts is to share them with folks from whom you can expect to receive no return. In other words, what better way to say ‘thank you’ to God than by sharing your gifts with no hope of being repaid?

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“To give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become. It is true that God will repay us not only in the next world but even in this one. Nothing makes us so prosperous in this world as to give alms. Oh, how holy and how rich is the poverty brought on by giving alms!” (IDL, Part Three, Chapter 15, p. 165)

What return can we make to God for all the gifts that God has given us? In the Salesian tradition, we show our gratitude by ‘paying it forward,’ that is, we share what we have – and who we are – with others who have less.

Without making them feel any less.

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(November 5, 2019: Tuesday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them.”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“When he created things, God commanded plants to bring forth their fruits, each one according to its kind. In like manner he commands Christians – the living plants of his Church – to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each according to one’s position and vocation. Devotion must be exercised in different ways by the gentleman, the laborer, the servant, the prince, the widow, the young girl and the married woman. Not only is this true, but the practice of devotion must also be adapted to the strength, the activities and the duties of each particular person.” (IDL, Part One, Chapter 3, p. 143)

All of us are called to be saints. No two of us are called to be saints in exactly the same way. As living plants of the Church, how will each of us in our own ways bring forth the fruits of devotion today?

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(November 6, 2019: Wednesday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another…”

In an episode of Gilligan's Island (guest-starring Phil Silvers as a director and/or talent scout) entitled, The Producer, the cast creates a musical version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Three songs are performed, one in which they cast sings “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”. Here are the lyrics:

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Do not forget: Stay out of debt; Think twice, and take this good advice from me, Guard that old solvency. There’s just one other thing you ought to do. To thine own self be true.”

Economics 101 tells us that we should not rack up debt. We should fulfill our obligations. We should only buy those things for which we can afford to pay.

In the Salesian tradition, however, there is one exception. We all owe a debt to one another that Francis de Sales calls Christian ‘piety.’ And what is this debt? We have an obligation to treat one another with profound respect and reverence. And this debt is non-negotiable.

How can we fulfill that debt today?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: October 24th - October 30th

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(October 24, 2019: Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop)
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“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”

In a film released in 2004, Denzel Washington stars as John Creasy, a despondent former CIA operative/Force Recon Marine officer-turned-bodyguard. Creasey gets a shot at redemption when he is hired to protect the daughter of a wealthy businessman in Mexico City. When the nine-year-old girl is kidnapped and held for ransom, Washington’s character will stop at nothing to get the young girl back, even to the point (spoiler alert!) of giving his life in exchange for hers.

The name of the film is Man on Fire.

Jesus Christ clearly was a man on fire. He tells us so in today’s Gospel selection from Luke. All throughout the three years of his public ministry, Jesus demonstrated again and again to us that he would stop at nothing to proclaim the power and promise of the Kingdom of God – forgiving the sinner, healing the blind, lame and leprous, finding the lost, raising the lowly, humbling the proud and challenging the haughty. His efforts not only won him many friends, but also made him more than a few enemies. Undaunted by the challenges of his vocation, Jesus remained faithful to the work of redemption, even to the point of giving his very life for others.

Like Jesus himself, Anthony Claret was a man on fire. “He was born in Salient in Catalonia, Spain, in 1807, the son of a weaver. He took up weaving but then eventually decided to study for the priesthood. He desired to be a Jesuit, but ill health prevented this from happening. Undeterred, he was ordained as a secular priest. In 1849, he founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (known today as the Claretians) and the Apostolic Training Institute of the Immaculate Conception (known today as the Claretian nuns). From 1850 to 1857, Anthony served as the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. He returned to Spain to serve the court of Queen Isabella II as confessor and went into exile with her in 1868. In 1869 and 1870, Anthony participated in the First Vatican Council. Throughout his ministry in both Cuba and Spain, Anthony found himself at odds with secular forces and endured many trials for the sake of the Gospel. In 1869 and 1870, Anthony participated in the First Vatican Council. He died in the Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide in southern France on October 24, 1870.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1452)

Jesus wants us to be men and women on fire with the love of God and neighbor. Jesus wants us – his brothers and sisters – to be unrelenting in demonstrating in our own lives the power and promise of the Kingdom of God.

How can we get ‘fired up’ for the sake of the Gospel today?

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(October 25, 2019: Friday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.”

You can feel the frustration in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Redeemed as he was by Jesus Christ, not only did Paul fail to do many of the things that he knew that he should have done, but also, he did many of the things that he knew that he shouldn’t have done. In another place Paul describes this disconnect as if having two men battling inside of him, each wrestling for dominance over the other.

In a letter to Peronne-Marie de Chatel (one of the four original members of the nascent Visitation congregation at Annecy who, notwithstanding her virtues and gifts, nevertheless experienced “discouragement, scruples and even moments of very human impatience and irritation,”), Francis de Sales wrote:

“You are right when you say there are two people in you. One person is a bit touchy, resentful and ready to flare up if anyone crosses her; this is the daughter of Eve and therefore bad-tempered. The other person fully intends to belong totally to God and who, in order to be all His, wants to be simply humble and humbly gentle toward everyone…this is the daughter of the glorious Virgin Mary and therefore of good disposition. These two daughters of different mothers fight each other and the good-for-nothing one is so mean that the good one has a hard time defending herself; afterward, the poor dear thinks that she has been beaten and that the wicked one is stronger than she. Not at all! The wicked one is not stronger than you but is more brazen, perverse, unpredictable and stubborn and when you go off crying she is very happy because that’s just so much time wasted, and she is satisfied to make you lose time when she is unable to make you lose eternity.” “Do not be ashamed of all this, my dear daughter, any more than St. Paul who confesses that there were two men in him – one rebellious toward God, and the other obedient to God. Stir up your courage. Arm yourself with the patience that we should have toward ourselves.” (LSD, p. 164-165) Of course, there aren’t really two people battling inside of us trying to see who will win out! Thank God for that, because most days we have more than enough to handle with our singular personalities! Of course, it is discouraging when we don’t live up to God’s standards or our own. Of course, it is frustrating to make what often times appears to be little progress in the spiritual life. Of course, there’s more good that we should do and more evil that we should avoid. Rather than drive yourself crazy, gently – and firmly – follow Francis de Sales’ advice: “Stir up your courage. Arm yourself with patience that we should have toward ourselves.”

And - of course - with one another.

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(October 26, 2019: Saturday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“The concern of the spirit is life…”

In a scene from the film Schindler’s List, Itzhak Stern (played by Sir Ben Kingsley) says the following about the names of the Jews whose safety the German industrialist is attempting to buy: “The list is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.”

“Stern makes this pronouncement as he and Schindler complete Schindler’s list. The two men have been working all night, adding as many names as possible—everyone Schindler can afford to buy. The list stands on its own as unadulterated good, unaffected by the mystery behind Schindler’s motives and any other mitigating factor. It represents the life of the Jewish race. Stern is perhaps stating the obvious when he says this, but symbolically, the list is the essence of life itself and, obviously, stands in stark contrast to the Nazi lists of death.”

“In the second half of the quotation, Stern mentions more than the life the list represents. He mentions the ‘gulf’ that surrounds the list. The gulf is the millions of Jews who will not be saved, but rather are left in a real-life purgatory - held prisoner - awaiting either freedom or death. The goodness of the list does not cancel out the evil that befalls the victims of the Holocaust, but even a small goodness is total goodness. Acknowledging all those who cannot be saved intensifies the impact of the good of the list, impressing upon the viewer the power of Schindler’s deed.” (http://www.sparknotes.com/film/schindlerslist/quotes.html)

In the end, Oskar Schindler saved over 1,100 Jews from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazi killing machine. By contrast, contemporary estimates indicate that perhaps as many as 10 million less-fortunate Jews perished in the conflagration.

It is a powerful demonstration of how - to paraphrase the words of St. Paul – the spirit’s concern for life is not a numbers game. All life is sacred; every life matters and is worthy of being saved. (Hence another quote from the lips of Itzhak Stern: “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”)

We can eschew the darkness of death, but it is far wiser - as we see so clearly in the life of Jesus – to do what we can to establish and grow the light of life. By dedicating ourselves to that same concern – for life – may we one day find our names written on another list.

In the Book of Life!

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(October 27, 2019: Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“The Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

The poor may not enjoy many things in life. However, that which they do possess – a special place in the heart and mind of God – stands head and shoulders above any earthy riches or wealth.

Scripture is clear and unambiguous: God has special concern for the plight of the poor and needy, for the want of the despairing and broken-hearted, for the anguish of the lost and forsaken, for the spirits of those who are crushed, for the life of the lonely, for the soul of the sinner.

Jesus embodies God’s love of the poor. While he reached out to people of all social, economic, ethnic and cultural classes, Jesus invested a significant amount of his time, his energy, his ministry – his love – with the impoverished, the reviled and the down-and-outs of his day. Jesus seems to have enjoyed the most success with the poor; he likewise seems to have felt most at home with them.

None of this love is lost on St. Francis de Sales. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:

“We must practice real poverty in the midst of all the goods and riches God gives us. Frequently give up some of your property by giving it with a generous heart to the poor. To give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become...Love the poor and love poverty, for it is by such love that we become truly poor...Be glad to see them in your own home and to visit with them in theirs. Be glad to talk to them and be pleased to have them near you in church, on the street and elsewhere. Be poor when conversing with them...but be rich in assisting them by sharing some of your more abundant goods with them.” (Intro III, 15)

Three aspects of De Sales’ observations are worth noting. First, to the extent that we reach out to the poor we come to know our own poverty, our own neediness, our own despair and our own misfortune. Francis noted: “We become like the things we love.” Our willingness to serve the poor puts us in touch with the poor in all of us.

Second, the plight of the poor is an unmistakable challenge for us to be generous: to give from our abundance and, even more demanding, to give from our own want and need.

Third, we must recognize the more subtle forms of poverty in our own homes, neighborhoods, classrooms and places of employment and not just the obvious ones on street corners, heating grates, or bus stations. We must recognize the heavenly riches of which we are all in need: care, kindness, forgiveness, friendship, truth, companionship, healing, understanding, reconciliation, honesty, faith, hope...and love.

Clearly, faithfully, lovingly, convincingly the Lord always hears the cry of the poor.

Do we?

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(October 28, 2019: Simon and Jude, Apostles)
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“He called his disciples to himself…”

Remember the hit TV comedy series Cheers? These are the words from the show’s theme song:

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. 
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. 
Wouldn't you like to get away? 
Sometimes you want to go here everybody knows your name, 
and they're always glad you came. 
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name. 
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same, 
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

In today’s Gospel we hear that even Jesus knew that “making your way in the world…takes everything you’ve got” and that “taking a break from all your worries sure can help a lot”, so he went up to the top of a mountain by himself to spend time in prayer with his Father. The next day, he calls his disciples to himself and named his Apostles. And to this day – nearly two thousand years later – everybody knows their names.

Just today, how can we make a name for ourselves in the service of God and neighbor? Today, how can we treat others in ways that makes them “glad you came?”

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(October 29, 2019: Tuesday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time)
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"To what can I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like a mustard seed…”

It seems paradoxical that Jesus would describe something as vast as the Kingdom of God in terms of one of the smallest of all seeds: the mustard seed. Still, consider how St. Francis de Sales describes eternity in a letter to the Duc de Bellegarde (Peer and Master of the Horse at the courts of both Henri IV and Louis XIII of France):

“Keep your eyes steadfastly fixed on that blissful day of eternity towards which the course of years bears us on; and these as they pass, themselves pass us stage by stage until we reach the end of the road. But meanwhile, in these passing moments there lies enclosed as in a tiny kernel the seed of all eternity; and in our humble little works of devotion there lies hidden the prize of everlasting glory, and the little pains we take to serve God lead to the repose of a bliss that can never end...” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 236)

Indeed, the Kingdom of God is a big thing. In fact, it is the biggest and the broadest of all things. As Jesus reminds us, however – and as Francis de Sales underscores – sometimes the biggest of things come in very small, ordinary and everyday packages!

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(October 30, 2019: Wednesday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“We know that all things work for good for those who love God…”

We may take these words from Paul’s letter to the Romans on faith, but there are many times in our lives when – despite our best efforts to love God and, for that matter, our neighbor also – things not only don’t work for good, but also things don’t work out in ways that we would like.

At least, not on the surface, or not in the short run.

In a letter to her second daughter Francoise, St. Jane de Chantal wrote:

“If you can look beyond the ordinary and shifting events of life and consider the infinite blessings and consolations of eternity, you would find comfort in the midst of any and all reversals of fortune…Oh, when will we learn to be more attentive to the truths of our faith? When will we savor the tenderness of the Divine Will in all the events of our life, seeing in them only His good pleasure and His unchanging, mysterious love which is always concerned with our good, as much in prosperity as in adversity? Let us surrender ourselves lovingly to the will of our heavenly Father and cooperate with His plan to unite us ultimately to Himself. Courage! May you find strength in these thoughts.” (Stopp, Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. 216)

We know – or, at least, we deeply want to believe – that indeed “all things work for good for those who love God.”

Today, may we find consolation and encouragement from the words of St. Jane de Chantal (who knew more than her fair share of suffering, setback and loss) that all things do work out for good in the long haul even when it seems – in the short run, at least – that they don’t.

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Spirituality Matters 2019: October 17 - October 23rd

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(October 17, 2019: Ignatius of Antioch)
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“What occasion is there then for boasting?”

As implied in today’s selection from the Gospel of Luke, apparently each and every day - at least, as far as the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and scholars of the law were concerned - was filled with countless opportunities for them boast about their position, privilege, power, and prestige. In stark contrast, Jesus makes it quite clear that – as far as he was concerned – not only did they have nothing about which to brag, but they also had many things about which they should have been ashamed.

Merriam-Webster defines “boast” as:

1. a statement in which you express too much pride in yourself or in something you have, have done, or are connected to in some way;

2. a reason to be proud: something impressive that someone or something has or has done.

Boasting about oneself is essentially a manifestation of forgetting one’s ‘place’ in this world. Clearly, the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and scholars of the law had forgotten their ‘place’. Instead of laboring for the good of others on behalf of God, these religious/legal movers and shakers essentially tried to take the ‘place’ of God, making everything all about them to the detriment of everyone else. They were so full of themselves that – tragically – there was little, or no room left within in and among them for God, even in the very person of His Son, Jesus!

St. Paul makes it clear that if we should boast at all, it can’t be about us – it must be about “something impressive that someone (else)…has done.” Christian boasting is never about us; it’s always about God!

So, what are the occasions for boasting, then? When we seriously stop and consider everything that God does for us as a whole – and what God does for us personally – a day shouldn’t go by without our boasting about how great, glorious and generous God is!

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(October 18, 2019: Luke, Evangelist)
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“The Lord stood by me and gave me strength...”

Our first reading from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy reminds us that being either an apostle, a disciple or an evangelist, brings its share of troubles.

Including being betrayed!

Paul cites at least three occasions on which he felt that he was – as we say so often these days – thrown under the bus. First, Demas deserted him; second, Alexander the coppersmith did him great harm; and third, no one showed up on Paul’s behalf when he attempted to defend himself in court. While he attributes his ability to get through this rough patch in his life to the Lord standing by him to give him strength, it certainly didn’t hurt that at least one person other than the Lord – St. Luke – remained faithful to Paul throughout his ordeals.

St. Francis de Sales wrote about the pain that comes from being betrayed by those closest to us. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:

“To be despised, criticized or accused by evil men is a slight thing to a courageous man, but to be criticized, denounced and treated badly by good men - by our own friends and relations – is the test of virtue. Just as the pain of a bee is much more painful than that of a fly, so the wrongs we suffer from good men and the attacks they make are far harder to bear than those we suffer from others. Yet it often happens that good people – all with good intentions – because of conflicting ideas stir up great persecutions and attacks on one another.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 3, pp. 128 – 129)

Paul found it very difficult to swallow betrayals at the hands of those with whom he lived and worked without becoming embittered about it. However, it seems that Paul was able to work through these betrayals because of the loyalty of two people in his life: the Lord and Luke.

Like Luke, how might we help another person work through the experience of betrayal? How might we – through our willingness to practice fidelity – give them the strength to overcome their pain and discouragement?

By standing with them today!

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(October 19, 2019: John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions, Martyrs)
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“Do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say…”

Today the Church reflects upon the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesuit Martyrs of North America. [Warning: this account if not for the faint of heart.] (http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1173)

“Isaac Jogues (1607-1646) and his companions were the first martyrs of the North American continent officially recognized by the Church. As a young Jesuit, Isaac Jogues, a man of learning and culture, taught literature in France. He gave up that career to work among the Huron Indians in the New World, and in 1636 he and his companions - under the leadership of John de Brébeuf - arrived in Quebec. The Hurons were constantly warring with the Iroquois, and in a few years Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois and imprisoned for thirteen months. An unexpected chance for escape came to Isaac Jogues through the Dutch, and he returned to France, bearing the marks of his sufferings. Several fingers had been cut, chewed or burnt off. Pope Urban VIII gave him permission to offer Mass with his mutilated hands: ‘It would be shameful that a martyr of Christ be not allowed to drink the Blood of Christ.’ Welcomed home as a hero, Father Jogues might have sat back, thanked God for his safe return and died peacefully in his homeland. But his zeal led him back once more to the fulfillment of his dreams. In a few months he sailed for his missions among the Hurons. In 1646 he and Jean de Lalande, who had offered his services to the missioners, set out for Iroquois country in the belief that a recently signed peace treaty would be observed. They were captured by a Mohawk war party, and on October 18 Father Jogues was tomahawked and beheaded. Jean de Lalande was killed the next day at Ossernenon, a village near Albany, New York.”

“The first of the Jesuit missionaries to be martyred was René Goupil who, with Lalande, had offered his services as an oblate. He was tortured along with Isaac Jogues in 1642 and was tomahawked for having made the Sign of the Cross on the brow of some children.”

“Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649): Jean de Brébeuf was a French Jesuit who came to Canada at the age of 32 and labored there for 24 years. He went back to France when the English captured Quebec (1629) and expelled the Jesuits but returned to his missions four years later. Although medicine men blamed the Jesuits for a smallpox epidemic among the Hurons, Jean remained with them. He composed catechisms and a dictionary in Huron and saw seven thousand converted before his death. He was captured by the Iroquois and died after four hours of extreme torture at Sainte Marie, near Georgian Bay, Canada.”

“Father Anthony Daniel, working among Hurons who were gradually becoming Christian, was killed by Iroquois on July 4, 1648. His body was thrown into his chapel, which was set on fire. Gabriel Lalemant had taken a fourth vow—to sacrifice his life to the Indians. He was horribly tortured to death along with Father Brébeuf. Father Charles Garnier was shot to death as he baptized children and catechumens during an Iroquois attack. Father Noel Chabanel was killed before he could answer his recall to France. He had found it exceedingly hard to adapt to mission life. He could not learn the language, the food and life of the Indians revolted him, plus he suffered spiritual dryness during his whole stay in Canada. Yet he made a vow to remain until death in his mission.”

“These eight Jesuit martyrs of North America were canonized in 1930.”

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It’s hard for us to imagine how deeply these Jesuit missionaries may have feared for their lives individually and/or collectively at the moment of truth at the hands of those who murdered them. In many cases they didn’t merely suffer death - they suffered horrific deaths. But one thing we know for certain: nothing would deter them from doing what they thought was right and good. When they were lost for words – or when the words they spoke had lost their effect – they spoke most powerfully and poignantly by giving their lives for the Gospel.

How deep is our trust that the Holy Spirit will teach us what to say – or for that matter, what not to say – at any given moment?

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(October 20, 2019: Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Jesus told his disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always without losing heart…”

In a perfect world, we would always be mindful of the presence of the God who created us, who redeemed us and who inspires us. In a perfect world, we would always recognize – and always manage to seize – the countless opportunities God presents to us to do what is right, what is good, what is creative, what is forgiving and what is loving. In a perfect world, we would always be energetic and enthusiastic about living each day, each hour and each moment as a gift from God. In a perfect world, nothing would ever distract from the things in life that really matter.

Our world, of course, is anything but perfect. We, for that matter, are anything but perfect.

Sometimes, we forget the presence of God. Sometimes, we miss the chances God gives us to do what is right, good and loving. Sometimes, we take the gift of life – and each moment of it – for granted. Sometimes we are consumed by trivial, even petty, concerns. Sometimes, we just don’t have the energy.

Simply put, there are times when we lose heart.

Prayer reminds us of God’s enduring presence. Prayer helps us to see the countless occasions we have each day to grow in virtue and to turn away from sin. Prayer enables us to gratefully embrace the gift of each new day as it comes. Prayer is what keeps us connected to God; prayer is what keeps us connected to the divine in ourselves; prayer is what keeps us connected to the divine in one another. Prayer is less about something we do and more about an attitude – and vision – that we develop and deepen.

Francis de Sales described prayer thus: “The essence of prayer is not to be found in always being on our knees but in keeping our wills clearly united to God’s will in all events.” (On Living Jesus, p. 295) In another place, he observed: “Prayer is the holy water that makes the plants of our good desires grow green and flourish; it cleanses our souls of their imperfections; it quenches the thirst of passion in our hearts.” (Ibid, p. 309)

Prayer gives us the humility to acknowledge where we’ve been; prayer gives us the gentleness to accept where we are; prayer gives us the courage to consider where we need to go. In the midst of our very busy, frequently demanding, sometimes frustrating and occasionally overwhelming lives, prayer helps us to stay connected with the people and things in life that really matter. When we “...give our hearts to God a thousand times a day” (Ibid, p. 298), we know how to be truly happy, healthy and holy.

Prayer gives us the presence of mind...to be people of heart.

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(October 21, 2019: Monday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Take care to guard against all greed…”

Greed is defined as “an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.”

What’s important to note is that greed is not equated with merely possessing material wealth; greed is about having an “excessive” or inordinate desire to possess material wealth. It isn’t about the amount of the wealth; it’s about the size – and intensity - of the desire for that wealth.

Francis de Sales certainly understood this distinction. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:

“I willingly grant that you may take care to increase your wealth and resources, provided this is done not only justly but properly and charitably. However, if you are strongly attached to the goods you possess, too solicitous about them, set your heart on them, always have them in your thoughts and fear losing them with a strong, anxious fear, then, believe me, you are suffering from a kind of fever. If you find your heart very desolated and afflicted at the loss of property, believe me, you love it too much…” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 14, p. 163)

The Gospel parable is a classic example of what Francis de Sales described. The rich man isn’t condemned because he is rich; the rich man is condemned because apparently it never crossed his mind to share his good fortune – his rich harvest – with others. Rather than give away that which he couldn’t immediately make room for, he choose to make even more room in order to keep it all for himself.

Note the distinction that Jesus makes, however. “Guard against all greed.” Greed isn’t limited to material possessions. Many of the things to which we cling – many of the things about which we have inordinate desires to keep for ourselves - aren’t material at all: our time, our opinions, our plans, our preferences, our comforts, our routines, our ways of seeing things and our ways of doing things are just a sampling of the many things to which we excessively cling.

What kinds of greed – in any form, in all forms - might we need to be careful to guard against today?

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(October 22, 2019: Tuesday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more…”

It has been said that the only irrefutable dogma of the Catholic Church is the teaching on Original Sin. One only needs to read the daily newspaper to recognize countless and unrelenting proofs of the existence of Original Sin in particular, and overall sin in general. It is all the more humbling when we recognize proofs of the existence of that same sinfulness in our own lives: our thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions. We don’t need to take the reality of sin on faith - we see and experience it every day!

And yet, as many proofs as there are for the reality of sin, Francis de Sales suggests that there are even more proofs of God’s mercy! In his Treatise on the Love of God, Frances de Sales wrote:

“God’s providence has left in us great marks of his severity, even amid the very grace of his mercy. Examples include the fact that we must die, that there is disease, that we must toil and the fact that we rebel against what we know is good. God’s favor floats over all this and finds joy in turning all our miseries to the greater profit of those who love him. From toil God makes patience spring forth, from death comes contempt for passing riches and from our interior struggles emerge a thousand victories. Just as the rainbow touches the thorn aspalathus and makes it smell sweeter than the lily, so our Savior’s redemption touches our miseries and makes them more beneficial and worthy of love than original innocence could ever have been. The angels, says our Savior, have ‘more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just who have no need of repentance. So, too, the state of redemption is a hundred times better than that of innocence.”

“Truly, by the watering of our Savior’s blood – made with the hyssop of the cross – we have been restored to a white incomparably better than that possessed by the snows of innocence. Like Naaman, we come out of the stream of salvation more pure and clean than if we had never had leprosy. This is to the end that God’s majesty, as he had ordained for us as well, should not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good, in order that his mercy – like a sacred oil – should keep itself ‘above judgment’ and ‘his mercies be above all his works.’” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 6, pp. 115 – 166)

There’s no doubt about it - sin is real. However, let there be even less doubt that God’s mercy, generosity and love is far more real – and powerful – than sin.

With God’s help – and with the support of others - how might we overcome evil with good today?

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(October 23, 2019: John of Capistrano, Priest)
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“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come…”

We all know the expression, “Hindsight is 20-20.” As we know from our own experience, often times it is much easier to recognize the truth about something hours, days, weeks and perhaps even years after the fact. While hindsight is better than having no sight at all, there are certain limitations associated with recognizing how God has been active in one’s life only after further reflection.

This pattern gets played out time and time again in numerous accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. People didn’t seem to recognize that the Son of Man was standing right in front of them. Put another way, insofar as they were not prepared to recognize who Jesus was before he appeared, they failed to recognize him when he actually arrived!

The aim of the Spiritual Directory – the goal of the Direction of Intention – is to help us to acquire foresight when it comes to recognizing the activity and presence of God in our lives. Living in each and every present moment challenges us to anticipate the variety of ways in which God may visit, speak to or inspire us just this day and to recognize God’s divine activity and presence as it actually occurs in each and every present moment - and not merely after the fact.

In the movie Field of Dreams, Doctor “Moonlight” Graham (played by actor Burt Lancaster) says to Ray Kinsella, “You know, we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, 'Well, there'll be other days.' I didn't realize that that was the only day.”

May God give us the awareness that we need to be prepared for the most significant moments - and each and every moment - in our lives, each and every day. But then, when you consider that we have only a limited number of moments allotted to us on this earth, shouldn’t every moment be a significant moment?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: October 10th - October 16th

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(October 10, 2019: Thursday, Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time)
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“He will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence...”

There’s an old adage which basically goes like this: “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”

Mind you, the adage doesn’t guarantee that you’ll always get what you want. Likewise, the adage doesn’t guarantee that if you do get want you want that you’ll get it when you want to get it or how you want it. On the other hand, if you don’t ask the question that pretty much guarantees that – under normal circumstances – you’ll never get what you want under any circumstances!

That’s one way of “reading” today’s Gospel parable. By all means ask; by all means seek; by all means knock. But don’t think that whatever you receive – whenever you receive it – however you receive it – necessarily results from the first question, the initial seeking or a single knock. In God’s way of telling time, we may need to ask, seek or knock many times.

In some cases, maybe even over a lifetime.

However, it is important to take note of a distinction that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel. While God promises to provide whatever we need because of our persistence, God makes no such promise when it comes to providing whatever we want.

Do you want to ask God for something? Then how about making this prayer - O God, give me the gratitude that comes from wanting what I already have, rather than always getting what I want.

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(October 11, 2019: Friday, Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time)
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“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone…it brings back seven others more wicked than itself.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus drives out a demon. In addition, he speaks about demons that would attempt to divide a kingdom against itself. Francis de Sales knew a few things about demons. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote extensively about this same demon upon which we touched previously this week: anxiety.

“Anxiety is not a simple temptation but a source from which and by which many temptations arise…When a soul perceives that it has suffered a certain evil, it is displeased at having it and hence sadness follows. The soul immediately desires to be free of it and to have some means of getting rid of it. Thus far the soul is right, for everyone naturally desires to embrace what is good and to dispose of anything evil…Now if it does not immediately succeed in the way it wants it grows very anxious and impatient. Instead of removing the evil, it increases it and this involves the soul in greater anguish and distress together with such loss of strength and courage that it imagines the evil to be incurable. You see, then, that sadness, which is justified in the beginning, produces anxiety, and anxiety in turn produces increase in sadness. All this is extremely dangerous.” (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 11, p. 251)

Anxiety never roams alone. It brings with it a whole host of other unclean spirits that can divide the kingdom of our heart against itself. Whatever difficulties or challenges you may face, don’t let things get worse by allowing anxiety and its cohorts to make a home in your heart.

Simply – but firmly – show them the door.

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(October 12, 2019: Blessed Louis Brisson, Priest/Founder and Religious)
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A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.

Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others.

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.

Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.

Word of the Lord. Responsorial Psalm

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”

Blessed those whose way is blameless,
who walk by the law of the LORD.     
Blessed those who keep his testimonies,   
who seek him with all their heart.

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”

You have given them the command
to observe your precepts with care.
May my ways be firm
in the observance of your statutes!

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”

I delight in your commandments,
which I dearly love.
I lift up my hands to your commandments;
I study your statutes, which I love.

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”

A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to John

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me
that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes,
so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so, neither can you unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire, and they will be burned.”

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you

and your joy may be complete.”

Gospel of the Lord.

*****

In her book, Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition, Wendy Wright quotes Fr. Brisson regarding the challenge to “Reprint the Gospel” in all aspects our lives. We read:

“It is not enough to read the Gospel in order to understand it. We must live it. The Gospel is the true story of the Word of God living among men. We must produce a New Edition of this Gospel among men by prayer, work, preaching and sacrifice…” “First, we reprint the Gospel by prayer, through which we give ourselves to God in every way without reserve.” “Second, we reprint the Gospel by means of work. We must reprint the Gospel and reprint it page by page without omitting anything…In our lives there is always some manual labor. There is a library to keep in order, a helping hand to be given. A little gardening to be done, a little tidying up or arranging to be done…God has attached great graces to manual labor.” “The third way for us to reprint the Gospel is by preaching. All of us should preach. Those who work with their hands as well as those who are occupied with exterior works, those who conduct classes and those who teach by example, those who direct souls as well as those assigned to the ministry of the pulpit – all of us should preach. We should preach in practical ways. We should teach our neighbors, if not by our words, at least by our actions.” “The fourth thing in the Gospel is sacrifice. The Word made Flesh prayed in order to teach us how to pray. He worked. He preached. Finally, He suffered. These are the four conditions necessary to reprint the Gospel…” (pp. 145-146

There are any number of ways in which God may ask us to reprint the Gospel: in prayer, work, preaching and sacrifice. Are you ready? Are you willing?

How can we reprint the Gospel today?

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(October 13, 2019: Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.”

Let's admit it: when something good happens to us we feel that somehow, we deserve it. The nine “lepers” in today's Gospel likely felt the same way - they asked Jesus for mercy, which in the Middle Eastern culture meant, “Do what you can for us.” They received from Jesus what they knew - by his reputation, at least - he could do for them. However, let's look at this Gospel in context of what came before and after this event.

Last week, Jesus told us that when we do what is expected of us, we have done no more than our duty. The author even goes so far as to have Jesus say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.” This statement seems to be in stark contrast to this week's Gospel that exhorts us to be grateful when someone else does “what they are obligated to do.” One might say culturally, therefore, that since Jesus could, he should. Next week's Gospel proclaims the “need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

In last week’s Gospel, the apostles asked for “an increase of faith.” Next week, Jesus will seem quite disturbed about people's faith when He says, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

A common western notion of illness is that it is more of an impediment that prevents us from being active and engaged in life. In the Mediterranean culture, “Illness removes a person from status and disturbs kinship patterns. People who suffer from the skin problem called ‘leprosy’ are excluded from the worshiping community. This human experience was much more depressing than the skin lesions.” (John Pilch, The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible). Jesus made all ten “clean”, but “one of them...saw that he was healed”. His skin condition was not only gone; but more importantly to the Middle Eastern man, he was reunited to the community.

Francis de Sales discusses the “inspirations” toward faith in Book II of his Treatise on the Love of God: “The inspiration (that) comes like a sacred wind to impel us into the air of holy love; it takes hold of our will and moves it by a sentiment of heavenly delight. All this...is done in us but without us, for it is God's favor that prepares us in this way. That very inspiration and favor which has caught hold of us mingles its action with our consent, animates our feeble movements by its own strength and enlivens our frail cooperation by the might of its operation. Thus will it aid us, lead us on, and accompany us from love to love until we attain to the act of most holy faith required for our conversion.”

Did this happen to the man who came back? What does the Gospel say? It says, “He turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.” Was he merely grateful for being freed from a skin disease, as the others were cleansed? No, his his heartfelt gratitude seems to go much deeper - in addition to getting his life back he was given the “inspiration” toward faith. He consented to that inspiration and in doing so was full of praise for Jesus! Then Jesus said to the man, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has been your salvation.”

How strong is our faith? Regardless of our answer, today consider how grateful are we for a God who always loves us, regardless of the strength – or weakness – of that faith?

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(October 14, 2019: Callistus I, Pope and Martyr)
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“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Callistus. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:

“By all appearances Callistus didn’t have a prayer of ever becoming a saint. The slave of a Roman Christian, Callistus displayed a talent with numbers. When his master established a kind of bank for fellow Christians, Callistus was charged with managing the accounts. It soon became apparent that Callistus would not measure up to expectations: he made bad investments and pilfered other monies outright. Angry and humiliated, the master sent Callistus to work turning the stone wheel at a gristmill.” ”

“Meanwhile, anxious depositors in the bank – hoping to recover even a portion of their lost savings – convinced the bank owner to release Callistus if the unscrupulous slave vowed to recover the funds he’d invested with Jewish merchants. Rising to the challenge, one Saturday morning Callistus interrupted the Sabbath service at Rome’s synagogue and demanded that the merchants repay the money. Not surprisingly, an uproar ensued, Callistus was attacked and the brawl spilled out into the streets. Callistus was subsequently arrested and then shipped off to work in the mines on Sardinia. But soon he was back in Rome, released in a general amnesty for Christian prisoners; one can imagine the groans of dismay among the city’s Christians and Jews alike when Callistus returned once again like the proverbial bad penny!”

“Aware of the controversy surrounding this slave, Pope Victor interceded on Callistus’ behalf. He offered Callistus a stipend and set him up in a small house outside the city’s walls, away from controversy. During this time - perhaps under the pope’s influence - the pagan slave’s conversion began. The pope gave the new convert a job supervising a number of catacombs; hence, Callistus’ position as the patron saint of cemetery workers. Later ordained a priest, Callistus served as an advisor to Pope Zephyrinus. But greater things were yet to come: Callistus himself was eventually elected pope! Following a brief five-year pontificate, he died a martyr, beaten to death in the street by a pagan mob.”

Who knows the mind of God? Who can predict God’s ways? A pagan slave who was considered by just about everyone as being nothing, but Callistus died as a slave of Christ – and as pope, no less!

Like Callistus, we are called to be holy. Like Callistus, we need conversion. How might we imitate the example of his remarkable life within the context of the often-times unpredictable twists and turns of our lives just today?

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(October 15, 2019: Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church)
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“As to what is within...behold, everything will be clean for you.”

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Teresa of Avila. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:

“Every day – all day long – God pours his grace upon the world. Those who accept it – who cooperate with God’s will – draw closer to the Lord, as in the case of St. Teresa of Avila, the patron of souls in need of divine grace. The easygoing life of the Carmelite convent she entered was not conducive to the contemplative life. So, she began planning a new branch of the Carmelites, one that would bring nuns (and friars) back to the order’s original commitment to a life of austerity and deep prayer…St. Teresa’s legacy is her collection of spiritual writings, She was the first Catholic woman to write systematically about prayer and the interior life. In 1970, upon naming her a Doctor of the Church, Pope Paul VI praised Teresa as ‘a teacher of remarkable depth.’”

Insofar as Teresa died in 1582, her writings were well known by the ‘Gentleman Saint.’ In a letter to Madame de Chantal (1605), Francis de Sales wrote:

“The practice of the presence of God taught by Mother Teresa in chapters 29 and 30 of The Way of Perfection is excellent, and I think it amounts to the same as I explained to you when I wrote that God was in our spirit as though he were the heart of our spirit and in our heart as the spirit which breathes life into it, and that David called God: the God of his heart. Use this boldly and often for it is most useful. May God be the soul and spirit of our heart forever….” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pp. 160 – 161)

We are all in need of God’s grace. We are all in need of recognizing – and experiencing – the divine activity within us that makes everything clean and good for us: the God whose spirit breathes life into us, the God who is the heart of our spirit and the God who is the God of our hearts.

What we are on the outside must be deeply rooted with who we are on the inside. Today, what better way to accept – and cooperate – with that divine presence within us than by sharing that same presence with those outside of us and around us?

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(October 16, 2019: Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin/Religious/Mystic)
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“There is no partiality with God…”

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:

“At the age of nine, Margaret Mary Alacoque contracted polio. She spent the next six years confined to her bed as an invalid. When she was fifteen it is said that she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary: upon emerging from her ecstasy, she discovered that she had been healed of her infirmities. During those six years Margaret Mary had developed a rather deep prayer life. When she subsequently joined the Sisters of the Visitation at Paray le Monial, she found the form of meditation prescribed for the novices rudimentary to the point of being tedious. Notwithstanding this source of frustration, Margaret Mary persevered and professed final vows.”

“In 1675 she had a vision of Christ while praying in the monastery chapel. He told Margaret Mary that he wanted her to be his messenger, spreading throughout the world devotion to his Sacred heart that, he told Margaret Mary, was ‘burning with divine love’ for the human family. Christ asked that the Church institute a new feast day in honor of his Sacred Heart and that, for love of him, Catholics should attend Mass and receive Communion on the First Friday of each month. He promised to save all faithful Catholics who honored him by displaying an image of his sacred heart in their homes or going to Mass and Communion every First Friday of the month for nine successive months.”

“Margaret Mary Alacoque encountered a great deal of skepticism when she began to tell the other sisters in the monastery about her visions. The nuns accused her of lying and questioned her sanity, while the local clergy dismissed her visions, saying that the Sacred Heart devotion went too far in humanizing Christ and thus diminished his divinity. The Jesuits, however – and the monastery’s chaplain Father Claude de la Colombiere, SJ – argued successfully that Margaret Mary’s revelations put fresh emphasis on the perfectly orthodox principle of confidence in God’s infinite love. Today veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a mainstay in Catholic devotional life.”

God not only shows no partiality, but God also shows no predictability! After all, who could have imagined that God would choose a cloistered, contemplative nun living a life hidden in Christ to promote a world-wide devotion to the Sacred Heart of His Son? And yet, that is exactly what God did!

How might this same impartial and unpredictable God be asking you to promote devotion to that same Sacred Heart today?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: October 3rd - October 9th

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(October 3, 2019: Cosmas and Damien, Martyrs)
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“He sent them ahead of him in pairs…”

Just two chapters into the Book of Genesis (2:18), we read, “It is not good for (the) man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him…”

Each and every one of us a unique expression and manifestation of the God in whose image and likeness we have been created. We are responsible for being ourselves – no one else can do it for us. We cannot ‘outsource” it to others. But even the God who created us, while One, is Three: Father, Son and Spirit. Within the Godhead there is something of both individuality and community at work at the same time.

While Francis de Sales challenges each one of us to “be who you are and to be that (perfectly) well,” we should not – we cannot – do that in a vacuum. We need community; we need one another. As John Donne so wisely observed, “No man is an island.” There are aspects and dimensions of our individuality that can only be recognized, claimed and developed within the context of being our individual selves in the context of relationships with others.

In today’s Gospel Jesus bemoans the fact that while the “harvest is abundant, the laborers are few.” From a cost-benefit analysis, Jesus could have covered a lot more ground by sending each member of his advance party out individually and alone. However, he deliberately chose to send them out in pairs. Jesus seems to be suggesting that companionship – kinship – is not a luxury associated with continuing to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. It is essential.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, (III, 8, 146-147) Francis wrote: “We must march on as a band of brothers (and sisters), companions united in meekness, peace and love.”

What’s the bottom line? If you are serious about “Living Jesus” – if you are serious about being who you are and being that (perfectly) well – don’t even think of doing it alone.

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(October 4, 2019: Francis of Assisi)
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Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Francis of Assisi. In his book entitled This Saint’s for You, Thomas J. Craughwell wrote:

“It is the rare Christian who does not get all syrupy about St. Francis of Assisi’s love or animals. Blame it on all those garden statues of Francis with a bunny curled up at his feet and little birds chirping on his shoulder. In real life, Francis’ view of animals was theological rather than sentimental. Animals form part of God’s creation, and, as the Book of Genesis tells us, everything in creation is good. No doubt Francis loved bunnies and birds, but he also loved spiders and snakes – and that is the challenge. Francis saw the world as an immense God-ordered system in which everything plays the role assigned to it by the Creator, and therefore every creature, whether it’s cute and cuddly or not, has value.” (This Saint’s for You, p. 31)

“One story in particular spotlights Francis’ belief in restoring the balance between man and beast. The town of Gubbio was plagued by a ferocious wolf that had carried off lambs, calve and other livestock – it had even killed small children. Afraid that the wolf would attack them, the people refused to travel outside the city walls. Declaring he was not afraid, Francis went outside the town in search of the wolf and hadn’t gone very far when he found the creature. ‘Brother Wolf,’ said Francis, ‘you have been stealing livestock that does not belong to you and frightening your neighbors. In the name of the Lord of Heaven, I command you to stop.’ The wolf drooped its head and lay on the ground at Francis’ feet. The Saint then turned to the townspeople, saying, ‘Brother Wolf will not trouble you or your animals, but in return you must feed him every day.’ The people of Gubbio agreed, and every day the wolf came to town for a meal. He became the town’s unofficial pet, and when he died the heartbroken townspeople had a sculpture of him carved and placed over the door of one of the town’s churches, where it remains to this day.” (This Saint’s for You, pp. 31-32)

In the case of Francis of Assisi, Jesus sent him out - literally - as a lamb to confront a wolf. As we know from our own day-to-day experiences, there are many things in life with which we must deal - some of them “cute and cuddly,” others potentially life-threatening.

As so we pray - God, help us to follow the example of Francis of Assisi (for whom St. Francis de Sales was named). May we have the confidence to combat things we experience as fearsome or ferocious with patience, gentleness and love.

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(October 5, 2019: Saturday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Fear not, my people!”

On March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made his now-famous remark within the context of his first inaugural address as president of the United States of America:

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Notwithstanding FDR’s assertion, one could have easily argued that there was indeed more to fear than fear itself. America was in the grip of a catastrophic economic freefall. Unemployment stood at twenty-five percent! Countless numbers of individuals and families lost their life-savings overnight. Struggling farmers had no markets in which to sell their yield. Suicides were common; despondency was rampant; hope seemed vanquished.

And the winds of war that would eventually fan themselves into the Second World War had yet to come!

On the 6th of August 1606, Francis de Sales wrote the following words to St. Jane de Chantal:

“Dear St. Peter, seeing that the storm was raging, was afraid. As soon as he was afraid, he began to sink and to drown, crying our, ‘O Lord, save me.’ Our Lord caught hold of his hand and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ Look at this holy apostle; he walks dry foot on the water the waves and winds could not make him sink; but fear of the wind and the waves will make him perish unless his master saves him. Fear is a greater evil than the evil itself.” (Selected Letters, Stopp, p. 125)

During the course of our lives we are sometimes buffeted by winds and waves of all kinds. Some may barely rock the boat; others may threaten our very lives or livelihood! Be it in the face of threats great or small, may God give us the strength to not allow our fear – however appropriate or prudent – to become a greater threat than the threats themselves.

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(October 6, 2019: Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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"Stir into flame the gift of God. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control."

“I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me.”*

In the wake of the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, these ancient words of the prophet Habakkuk feel as if they were written specifically for us. We have seen the face of evil. We have witnessed wholesale acts of hatred and violence. There is catastrophic debris - human, material, emotional, spiritual - through which we are still sifting twelve years after the event, even as we struggle to find ways to combat terrorism around the world and address the underlying issues that, in part, give birth to terrorism and religious fanaticism.

What are we to do?

We must recognize the threat not only to our nation, but also to peoples of all races, faiths and cultures who pursue peace, justice, freedom and reconciliation. We must take steps to rid our world of those who would promote their own grievances or agendas at the expense of human life.

These events are likewise a wake-up call on an even deeper, more fundamental level. We are challenged to see more clearly the less obvious, subtler face of violence and destruction in our own lives and in the lives of our families, friends, relatives, classmates and colleagues. We must confront resentment, abuse, addiction, hatred, bigotry, gossip and other attitudes/actions that tear at our minds, hearts, attitudes and actions. We must confront all forms of sin and evil that tear at the very fabric; of who we are as sons and daughters of God, who we are as community, who we are as church, who we are as country, and who we are as citizens of the world.

We must identify, confront and conquer anything that would seek to terrorize our God-given dignity and destiny. We need to stir up the flame of righteous indignation in ourselves and in one another. But while this inflaming of our spirit must make us powerful, it must also make us loving and self-disciplined. We cannot allow our methods for confronting violence and hatred to become themselves a continuation of the circle of violence and destruction. We must respond, not react; we must be wise, not rash; we must be prudent, not indiscriminate. Above all, the pain that we - and others - may experience in the fight to confront hatred in all its forms must be motivated by and lead to a deeper, broader and more inclusive vision of justice, peace, freedom and reconciliation for ourselves and for all people.

Above all, the spirit that must be ignited and set ablaze inside and among us must not be rooted in fear. Francis de Sales reminds us, now more than ever, that we must “do all through love and nothing through fear”.

And so, we pray – O God, increase and inflame your spirit within us. As we confront the many faces of terrorism (both the obvious and obscure) make us - keep us - powerful, self-disciplined and – above all - loving.

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(October 7, 2019: Our Lady of the Rosary)
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“What is written in the law? How do you read it?”

Jesus raises a great question in today’s Gospel. And the person to whom he directs it – a “scholar of the law” – would appreciate the power of the question. Any student of the law – and in particular, anyone who practices law – knows that it isn’t enough just to know the letter of the law, but it’s also important to know how to “read” – that is, to interpret – the law so as to know how best to apply it.

This dilemma brings us to the best – albeit, if not the most concise – answer to that question - the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Talk about a study in contrast! Two so-called experts in the letter of the law – the priest and the Levite - failed miserably because they did not offer any assistance to the man who fell victim to robbers. And the other hand,the Samaritan – a man who may have known very little if any law – followed the law of compassion and common sense by tending to the needs of this unfortunate stranger by being a good neighbor.

Of course, the most important law for those who follow Jesus is the Gospel, that is, the Law of Love, a love so clearly embodied by Jesus as well as by his mother, Mary. It’s important for us to have a working knowledge of that Law; it’s important for us to know how to “read” or interpret that Law. More important, however, than knowing or interpreting it is our willingness to put the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the Law of Love – into practice.

In what ways can we be Good Samaritans - that is, good, just and -compassionate neighbors - today?

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(October 8, 2019: Tuesday, Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time)
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“You are anxious and worried about many things…”

In his Introduction to a Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Anxiety is not a simple temptation but a source from which and by which many temptations arise. With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul. Just as sedition and internal disorders bring total ruin on a State and leave it helpless to resist a foreign invader, so also, if our heart is inwardly troubled and disturbed it loses both the strength necessary to maintain the virtues it had acquired and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy. He then uses his utmost efforts to fish, as they say, in troubled waters." (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 11, pp. 251-252)

Martha was obviously overwhelmed by her desire to do right by Jesus when it came to the practice of hospitality. Apparently more obvious to Jesus, however, was the fact that Martha was “anxious and worried about many things.” This issue of wanting to be the perfect host and whining about needing help with the serving seems to have been the tip of the iceberg.

We should want to put our best foot forward when entertaining guests. We should want to give worthwhile things our best effort. We should want to do things well. We should want to get it right the first time.

And when we don’t? Deal with it, learn from it and move beyond it without being all worked up and anxious about it. Anxiety not only ruins good things; anxiety makes bad things even worse.

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(October 9, 2019: Denis, Bishop and Martyr; John Leonardi, Priest)
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“Lord, teach us to pray…”

In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. Of course, a more fundamental question might have been, “Teach us why we should pray.”

In a letter written to a young woman who was – you guessed it – experiencing difficulty when praying, Francis de Sales wrote:

“First, we pray to give God the honor and homage we owe Him. This can be done without His speaking to us or we to Him, for this duty is paid by remembering that He is God and we are His creatures and by remaining prostrate in spirit before him, awaiting His commands.

“Second, we pray in order to speak with God and to hear Him speak to us by inspirations and movements in the interior of our soul. Generally this is done with a very delicious pleasure, because it is a great good for us to speak to so great a Lord. When He answers He spreads abroad a thousand precious balms and unguents which give great sweetness to the soul.”

“So, one of these two goods can never fail you in prayer. If we speak to our Lord, let us speak, let us praise Him, beseech Him and listen to Him. If we cannot use our voice, still let us stay in the room and do reverence to Him. He will see us there. He will accept our patience and will favor our silence. At other times we shall be quite amazed to be taken by the hand and he will converse with us, and will make a hundred turns with us in the walks of His garden of prayer. And if He should never do these things, let us be content with our duty of being in His suite and with the great grace and too great honor He does us in accepting our presence…” (Thy Will be Done, pp. 26-27)

So, why should we pray? Well, either (1) to remind ourselves of who God is in our lives, or (2) to remind ourselves who God wants us to be in relationship with Him and each other. Regardless of how many, how few or if any words we may use in the process of praying, may God give us the grace to (1) do what we pray and (2) pray what we do.

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Spirituality Matters 2019: September 26th - October 2nd

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(September 26, 2019: Cosmas and Damien, Martyrs)
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“Consider your ways!”

“Not much in the way of detail is known about the lives of Cosmas and Damien beyond the fact that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian.”

“A church erected on the site of their burial place was enlarged by the emperor Justinian. Devotion to the two saints spread rapidly in both East and West. A famous basilica was erected in their honor in Constantinople. Their names were placed in the canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I) probably sometime during the sixth century.”

“Legend says that they were twin brothers born in Arabia, who became skilled doctors. They were among those who are venerated in the East as the ‘moneyless ones’ because apparently they did not charge a fee for their services. During a time of religious persecution, it would have been almost impossible that such prominent persons would escape unnoticed - they were arrested and subsequently beheaded because of their faith.”

Little – if any – of the details of their lives remains. Yet, to this very day these two men – Cosmas and Damien – are remembered for their selflessness, generosity and courage.

When others consider our ways, for what will we be remembered?

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(September 27, 2019: Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest and Founder)
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“Take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD, and work!”

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Vincent de Paul. In his book entitled This Saint’s for You, Thomas J. Craughwell wrote:

“Vincent de Paul’s…temperament was such that he could never turn away from a person in need, no matter what the need was. The list of troubles he sought to alleviate is astounding. He brought food and medicine to penniless sick people, comforted convicts condemned to row the galleys, and sheltered orphans, the elderly and soldiers incapacitated by war wounds. He opened hospitals, took in abandoned babies and taught catechism to children. He founded an order of nuns (the Daughters of Charity) to serve the poor and another for priests to teach and encourage religious devotion among the urban poor and country peasants. In time, the Vincentians’ (as they came to be called) method for educating people in the faith was adopted by many bishops for use in their own seminaries.” (This Saint’s for You, p. 108)

There is nothing new about what St. Vincent de Paul did. After all, countless saints (both those known and many more unknown) have been doing good things for others in the name of God since time immemorial. That said, Vincent de Paul is recognized for having the courage to do well-known and well-established good things for God’s people in new and creative ways that fit the needs of the times.

Today, how might God be asking us to take courage as we continue the work of the lord?

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(September 28, 2019: Saturday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Pay attention to what I am telling you.”

Some things in life are more important than others. With the hope of trying to impress upon another person that what we are about to say is of greater importance than other things, more often than not, we will preface our advice with words like ‘listen up,’ ‘pay attention’ or ‘this is really important.’

While we’d like to think that everything that Jesus said is of equal importance, Jesus clearly wanted to impress his disciples with the inevitability of his showdown with the religious leaders of his time. And while we know that Jesus raised this issue more than a few times in the Gospels, the disciples seem to have had difficulty in grasping the importance of this prediction.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“The more pleasant and excellent are the objects our senses encounter, the more ardently and avidly do they enjoy them. The more beautiful, the more delightful to our sight, and the more effectively lighted they are, the more eagerly and attentively do our eyes look to them. The sweeter and more pleasant a voice or music is, the more completely is the ear’s attention drawn to it. This force is more or less strong in accordance with the greater or lesser excellence of the object, provided that it is proportionate to the capacity of the sense desiring to enjoy it. For example, although the eye finds great pleasure in light, it cannot bear extremely strong light, nor can it look steadily at the sun. No matter how beautiful music may be, if it is too loud and too close to us, it strikes harshly on the ear and disturbs it.” (TLG, Book III, Chapter 9, p. 186)

There are so many things that Jesus wants us to learn about the ways of living in God’s love. How well will we pay attention to what God may be telling us about those ways today?

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(September 29, 2019: Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Compete well for the faith.”

Both the reading from the prophet Amos and the parable from the Gospel of Luke warn us against being complacent, which is defined as being “contented to a fault; self-satisfied and unconcerned.” The first and third readings suggest that those who are complacent are those most in danger of experiencing personal disaster.

Few people decide to become “contented to a fault” all at once. It usually occurs slowly and subtly. We allow good times and experiences to lull us into a false sense of security. We begin to believe that we are somehow above the trials and tribulations of other people. We get the feeling that we have somehow ‘arrived’ even though life's journey - with its responsibilities, demands and challenges - is far from over.

St. Paul certainly recognized the temptation to become “contented to a fault.” What is his remedy? Compete well for the faith. Seek after integrity, piety, faith, love, steadfastness and a gentle spirit.”

Integrity - a steadfast adherence to a moral or ethical code

Piety - a religious devotion and reverence to God and to others

Faith - a confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea or a thing

Love - a deep, tender, ineffable emotion of affection and solicitude toward others; a sense of underlying oneness

Steadfast – firm, loyal or constant; unswerving

Gentle - considerate or kindly; not harsh or severe

Competing well for the faith requires constant effort. It requires energy. It requires vigilance. It is an ongoing concern. We hear echoes of this in St. Francis de Sales' understanding of devotion: "Doing what is good carefully, frequently and promptly."

Simply put, the spiritual life is a life-long process. Regardless of how much progress we might be making at any given point along the journey, we must avoid becoming complacent, of becoming “contented to a fault.” No matter how much we have accomplished individually and collectively in the love of God and neighbor, there is always more good that still must be accomplished.

Today, just remember to do it carefully, frequently and promptly!

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(September 30, 2019: Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church)
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“They will be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice…”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:

“St. Jerome was a Latin scholar in love with the art of fashioning words into beautiful phrases. About the year 366 he became secretary to the newly-elected pope, St. Damasus. It was Damasus’ dream to produce a new Latin translation of the Bible based on the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Recognizing his secretary’s flair with language, the pope believed that Jerome was the man for the job. In the three years that followed Jerome produced beautiful and accurate translations of the psalms, the four Gospels, all of the Epistles and the Book of Revelation.”

“To improve the then-current translations of the Old Testament, Jerome studied Hebrew. Frustrated at first, Jerome persisted with language and in twenty-six years he completed his translation of the Hebrew Scripture. During that time Damasus died and Jerome moved from Rome to Bethlehem, after which Rome itself fell to barbarians. One of Jerome’s letters written during the time when Roman refugees were pouring into the Holy Land survives to this day. Addressing a friend, Jerome wrote, ‘I have set aside my commentary of Ezekiel, and almost all of my study. For today we must translate the words of the Scripture into deeds.” (page 55)

What a privilege it was for Jerome to translate the Old and New Testaments! After all, taken together they constitute the greatest love story of all: the love of a just and faithful God for the human family.

Just today how can we continue to tell that same love story in words and translate it into deeds?

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(October 1, 2019: Therese of the Childs Jesus, aka, the “Little Flower”)
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“Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you…”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:

“There’s no reason why the world should have ever heard of Therese Martin. She grew up in Lisieux, an obscure town in Normandy, and rarely ventured beyond the tightly knit circle of her immediate family and relatives. At age sixteen she entered the Carmelite cloister, which completely isolated her from the outside world, and she died there when she was only twenty-four. In spite of her rather isolated life, St. Therese has a following among believers that is on par with St. Joseph, St. Anthony and St. Jude. She even has a nickname, ‘the Little Flower.’ And in 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, which sets her among the Church’s intellectual and mystical heavyweights. How did this happen, this evolution from obscurity to world-wide fame?”

“It all began the year after Therese’s death, when the Carmelites published her spiritual biography, The Story of a Soul. The crucial point in the book is the idea that even the humblest, most mundane task – if done for love of God – can draw one closer to him and make one grow in holiness. At first, many readers dismissed Therese’s ‘Little Way’ (as she called it) as late-nineteenth-French sentimental piety. But even her fiercest skeptics have been surprised to find that her approach to sanctity is really quite mainstream: saints like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila advocated the same idea, as did Thomas a Kempis in his book, Imitation of Christ. (Editor’s note: so, too, did St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life!) Miracles account for the other facet of St. Therese’s popularity. She has a reputation for answering prayers. On her deathbed she promised that – upon reaching heaven – she would rain down miracles on the world ‘like a shower of roses.’”

Therese’s relics appear frequently in selected places all around the world. The crowds that gather to view her remains consistently surpass those associated with such notable attractions as the “King Tut” and “Nicholas and Alexandria” exhibits by leaps and bounds. Why? Clearly, countless people have come to recognize that God was with her in a very vital, vivid and invigorating way. To what degree can the same be said of us?

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(October 2, 2019: The Holy Guardian Angels)
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“Their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father…”

God not only calls us to live a holy life, but God also provides us with the means to live that life – what Francis de Sales calls “aids” – and to help us to become holy people. In a conference (“On Constancy”) given to the Sisters of the Visitation, Francis de Sales remarked:

“The aids that God gives to us are intended to help us to keep steadily on our way, to prevent our falling, or, if we fall, to help us to get back up again. Oh, with what openness, cordiality, sincerity, simplicity and faithful confidence ought we to dialogue with these aids, which are given to us by God to help us in our spiritual progress. Certainly, this is true in the case of our good angels. We ought to look upon them in the same way, since our good angels are called angel guardians because they are commissioned to help us by their inspirations, to defend us in perils, to reprove us when we err and to stimulate us in the pursuit of virtue. They are charged to carry our prayers before the throne of the majesty, goodness and mercy of Our Lord and to bring back to us the answers to our petitions. The graces, too, which God bestows on us, He gives through the intervention or intercession of our good angels. Now, other aids are our visible good angels, just as our holy angel guardians are our invisible ones. Other aids do visibly what our good angels do inwardly, for they warn us of our faults; they encourage us when we are weak and languid; they stimulate us in our endeavors to attain perfection; they prevent us from falling by their goods counsels, and they help us to rise up again when we have fallen over some precipice of imperfection or fault. If we are overwhelmed with weariness and disgust, they help us to bear our trouble patiently, and they pray to God to give us strength so to bear it so as not to be overcome by temptation. See, then, how much we ought to value their assistance and their tender care for us …” (Conference III**, pp. 41-42)

In the mind of Francis de Sales, God provide us with invisible support for our journey in this life through those “aids” known as “angel guardians”. It’s safe to say that some of the most visible “aids” that God uses to provide support for our journey in this life are known by another name: “friends”.

How can we imitate the invisible example of the angel guardians today by befriending one another in very visible ways?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: September 19th - September 25th

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(September 19, 2019: Januarius, Bishop and Martyr)
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“She has shown great love.”

Throughout the history of great ideas, great inventions or great moments, often times what makes an idea, invention or moment great is the fact that somebody thinks of doing something which nobody else had considered doing.

Such is the example in today’s Gospel selection from Luke. On the face of it, wiping and anointing the feet of an important guest – signs of great respect and reverence – was something that in Jesus’ day one might simply take for granted. But in this case, it seems that that’s exactly what happened – the host took it for granted, and it didn’t get done until “a sinful woman” saw the need and sprang into action.

At the moment this “sinful woman” made her way into this august gathering with no invitation (no small achievement in itself) and proceeded to do what nobody else had ever thought of doing - through ritual action she expressed her respect and reverence by washing and anointing Jesus’ feet. She might have been a great sinner in the minds of other people, but in the mind of Jesus her sinfulness was only superseded by her great love. And we remember her great love for Jesus nearly two thousand years after her powerfully personal expression of that great love!

Sinners though we are, how might we show great love for Jesus today?

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(September 20, 2019: Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs)
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“Blessed the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

“This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang was a lay apostle and married man, aged 45.”

“When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984, he canonized, besides Andrew and Paul, 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women, 45 men.”

“Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot tools and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. A boy of 13, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a 41-year-old noble, renounced his faith under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death. Religious freedom came to Korea in 1883. Today, there are almost 5.1 million Catholics in Korea.” (http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1144) Being poor in spirit doesn’t mean possessing nothing. Rather, being poor in spirit means being generous with one’s possessions, regardless of whether one possesses a lot or a little. In the case of the scores of Catholic men, women and children martyred over a thirty-year period in Korea, they were generous with the greatest of all possessions - their lives.

How can we follow the example of their poverty of spirit – that is, their generosity – today?

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(September 21, 2019: Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist)
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“Live in a manner worthy of the call you have received…”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:

“During the Roman Empire, tax collecting was one of the most lucrative jobs a person could have. With the emperor’s tacit approval, collectors were free to wring all they could from their district’s taxpayers and then keep a portion of the proceeds for themselves. Caesar didn’t mind the profiteering as long as the total assessed tax was delivered to his treasury. But Jewish taxpayers forced to pay the exorbitant sums weren’t quite so forgiving, especially when the tax collector was a fellow Jew, like Matthew. Jewish tax collectors were regarded as loathsome collaborators and extortionists who exploited their own people. It’s little wonder, then, that in the Gospels tax collectors are placed on par with harlots, thieves, and other shameless public sinners.”

“Matthew collected taxes in Capernaum, a town in the northern province of Galilee and the site of a Roman garrison. Christ was a frequent visitor there, performing such miracles as healing the centurion’s servant, curing Peter’s ailing mother-in-law, and raising Jairus’ daughter form the dead. One day, while passing the customs house where Matthew was busy squeezing extra shekels from his neighbors, Christ paused to say, ‘Follow me.’ That was all it took to touch Matthew’s heart. He walked out of the customs house forever, giving up his life as a cheat to become an apostle, the author of a Gospel and eventually a martyr.” (Page 12)

Just when Matthew thought he had it made – just when he thought he was living la vita loca – Christ changed his life by calling him to live in a manner worthy of what God had in mind for him. Matthew – who clearly recognized an opportunity when he saw one – dropped everything he had valued up until that very moment to follow Jesus. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Amazing how a handful of words can change the trajectory of one’s life. A few words from Jesus transformed Matthew from being a human being who was all about taking from others into a man who was all about giving to others - even to the point of giving his very life.

How might God’s words invite us to change and to transform our lives today?

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(September 22, 2019: Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.”

"One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind."

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's words - accompanied as they were by the "thump" of his foot on the moon's surface - created a global image that affirmed once again our potential as human beings. It also gave us an image that inspires future generations to work together to realize still more dimensions of our human potential.

In his book Soul Mates (p viii), Thomas Moore approaches ‘soul making’ very much in terms of symbols and imagination. In fact, his major premise with respect to conversion and transformation is that changing imagery is crucial to changing priorities and behaviors.

Changing priorities and behaviors was very much the thrust of St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life. He promoted a very different image of holiness in his day and age. The prevailing image was monastic life, which saw the committed Christian life as removed from the affairs of the world. The new image was more like being at court, which saw the committed Christian life as being fully engaged in the affairs of the world. De Sales comments, “Where ever we may be, we can and should aspire to live a holy life.” (IDL, Part 1, Chapter 3)

This Salesian image offers a lens for seeing the message of today's Scriptures. Luke in his parable and Amos in his prophetic pronouncement speak to the man or woman engaged in the business of life, calling them to live in such a way as to give the fullest expression to their God-given dignity and destiny. From the negative side Amos castigates the ‘so called’ believers who cannot wait for the liturgy to be over and can return to fraud in the pursuit of profits. From the positive side, Jesus notes the unjust steward's prudence in meeting his needs in a crisis. He wishes this quality of clever prudence for all committed believers who want to love and serve God with their lives in and out of crisis.

What can sustain the committed Christian in the way of clever prudence? De Sales offers an image for prayer and reflection to care for the soul in this situation. He tells the devout Christian: “Imitate little children who with one hand hold fast to their father while with the other they gather berries from the hedge.” (IDL, Part 3, Chapter 10)

The most important thing we can do to become our whole selves in the business world (or anywhere for that matter) is to make an effort to stay connected and grounded. Time spent in honest prayer and reflection helps us connect with ourselves, with our values, with our faith community, our neighbor, and quintessentially with our God “in the midst of so much busyness.” (Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. 163)

Justice, like its counterpart: beauty, truth, and love, all-too-often remain an abstraction. Fairness, woven into the heart of the committed Christian man or woman (indeed, of anyone), could collectively be such a ‘giant leap for mankind’ for living a more grounded life and producing a more just and loving world.

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(September 23, 2019: Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest)
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“For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.”

“Born Francesco Forgione, Padre Pio grew up in a family of farmers in southern Italy. Twice (1898-1903 and 1910-17) his father worked in Jamaica, New York, to provide the family income.”

“At the age of 15, Francesco joined the Capuchins and took the name of Pio. He was ordained in 1910 and was drafted during World War I. After he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he was discharged. In 1917 he was assigned to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, 75 miles from the city of Bari on the Adriatic. On September 20, 1918, as he was making his thanksgiving after Mass, Padre Pio had a vision of Jesus. When the vision ended, he had the stigmata in his hands, feet and side.”

“His life became more complicated after that. Medical doctors, Church authorities and curiosity seekers came to see Padre Pio. In 1924 and again in 1931, the authenticity of the stigmata was questioned; Padre Pio was not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to hear confessions. He did not complain of these decisions, which were soon reversed. However, he wrote no letters after 1924. His only other writing, a pamphlet on the agony of Jesus, was done before 1924.”

“Padre Pio rarely left the friary after he received the stigmata, but busloads of people soon began coming to see him. Each morning following the 5:00 AM Mass in a crowded church, he heard confessions until noon. He took a mid-morning break to bless the sick and all who came to see him. Every afternoon he also heard confessions. Over time his confessional ministry would consume ten hours a day; penitents had to take a number in order to handle the crowds of people who came to see him.”

“Padre Pio particularly saw Jesus in the faces of the sick and suffering. At his urging, a hospital was constructed on nearby Mount Gargano. Beginning in 1940 a committee began to collect money: six years later ground was broken. This ‘House for the Alleviation of Suffering’ had 350 beds.”

“Pius of Pietrelcina died on September 23, 1968, was beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002.” (http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1147)

Despite the fact that he did all he could to avoid drawing attention to himself, this humble priest became a household name for Catholics around the world. However obvious or obscure, may we door our best – just as Padre Pio did – to let our light shine.

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(September 24, 2019: Tuesday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

In earlier times in human history – before the development and growth of urban centers – communities tended to be small and tight-knit. Everybody knew everybody else, so much so, that when asked to identify members of a particular clan, tribe or family it was easy to pick them out by how they looked, spoke or acted.

We are children of the Father, siblings of Jesus and embodiments of the Holy Spirit. How easily do others identify us as members of God’s family by how we look, speak and act?

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(September 25, 2019: Wednesday, Twenty-fifth Week Ordinary Time)
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“Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.”

When it comes to making progress along the road of life, Jesus is challenging us to travel lightly. While we should make some long-term plans for our lives and adjust those plans on a daily basis, Jesus urges us to resist the temptation to pack too many things that we figure we might ‘need’ for the journey.

All of us probably have seen people struggling with way-too-much luggage on vacation. In their attempt to prepare for just about every contingency that they might encounter during the course of their journey, they overdue it. What is the result? Ironically enough, all the stuff that they packed to help them prepare for the trip ends up becoming the biggest hindrance on the trip.

In a letter addressed to Jane de Chantal (January 1615), Francis de sales wrote:

“May God be with you on your journey. May God keep you clothed in the garment of his charity. May God nourish your soul with the heavenly bread of his consolation. May God bring you back safe and sound…May God be your God forever.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 226)

Whatever else she may have packed for her journey, Francis de Sales invited her (in the form of a blessing) to focus on the few things that she would truly need for her trip. The list might not sound like much, but upon closer review, it contains he things that really matter.

What provisions – if anything – will we choose to bring with us on the journey of life today?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: September 12th - September 18th

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(September 12, 2019: Holy Name of Mary)
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“Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience…”

“The Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, or simply the Holy Name of Mary, is a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church celebrated on 12 September to honor the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has been a universal Roman Rite feast since 1684, when Pope Innocent XI included it in the General Roman Calendar to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.”

“The feast day began in 1513 as a local celebration in Cuenca, Spain, celebrated on 15 September. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V moved the celebration to 17 September. In 1622 Pope Gregory XV extended the celebration to the Archdiocese of Toledo and it was subsequently extended to the entire Kingdom of Spain in 1671. The feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969, as it was seen as something of a duplication of the 8 September feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 2002, Pope John Paul II restored the celebration to the General Roman Calendar.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Name_of_Mary)

Mary has a prominent place among those chosen by God to be instruments of His will on earth. As the Mother of the Messiah we recognize her for – among other things – her “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Mary is a role model for us, insofar as we, too, are God’s chosen ones. The faithful Mother of Jesus shows us how we can be faithful brothers and sisters of Jesus.

Like Mary, how can we put on “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” today? And, in so doing, imitate her Son!

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(September 13, 2019: John Chrysostom, Bishop/Doctor of the Church)
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"I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“St. John, named Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) on account of his eloquence, came into the world of Christian parents, about the year 344, in the city of Antioch. His mother, at the age of 20, was a model of virtue. He studied rhetoric under Libanius, a pagan, the most famous orator of the age.

In 374, he began to lead the life of an anchorite in the mountains near Antioch, but in 386 the poor state of his health forced him to return to Antioch, where he was ordained a priest.”

“In 398, he was elevated to the See of Constantinople and became one of the greatest lights of the Church. But he had enemies in high places and some were ecclesiastics, including Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who repented of this before he died. His most powerful enemy, however, was the empress Eudoxia, who was offended by the apostolic freedom of his discourses. Several accusations were brought against him in a pseudo-council, and he was sent into exile.”

“In the midst of his sufferings, like the apostle, St. Paul, whom he so greatly admired, he found the greatest peace and happiness. He had the consolation of knowing that the Pope remained his friend, and did for him what lay in his power. His enemies were not satisfied with the sufferings he had already endured, and they banished him still further, to Pythius, at the very extremity of the Empire. He died on his way there on September 14, 407.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=64)

Take some time today to consider the tough times that you have had in your life. To what degree were you able to work through those times because of God’s grace and the support of loved ones? Ask yourself the question “How grateful am I?”

How will you express that gratitude to God and others today?

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(September 14, 2019: Exaltation of the Holy Cross)
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“Christ Jesus did not regard equality with God something at which to grasp…”

The cross of Calvary is the most poignant and powerful embodiment of the Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Hanging upon the cross we see a crucified Christ who did not cling to the power of his divinity; rather, Jesus saw the power of his divinity as a gift to be freely shared with others through the fullness of his humanity. Being “poor in spirit” for Jesus didn’t mean having nothing to give, but for him, being “poor in spirit” meant holding nothing back.

In a letter written to Jane de Chantal on the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross in 1605, Francis de Sales exhorted:

“All I can do is just to give you my blessing, which I give you in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified; may his cross be our glory and our consolation, my dear daughter. May it be greatly exalted among us and planted on our head as it was on that of the first Adam. May it fill our heart and our soul, as it filled the soul of St. Paul, who knew nothing else. Courage, dear daughter, for God is on our side. Amen.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 100)

Today, look at the cross of the crucified Christ. See in Him a God who is always and forever on our side! May we embody the spirit of the Cross through our efforts each day to be on the side of one another. In this may we find courage and consolation to hold nothing back in our love of God and neighbor.

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(September 15, 2019: Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“The Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”

Today's scriptural readings pull no punches in describing the sorry lot of sinners. The people upon whom God has showered his preferential love have become "depraved and stiff-necked," turning from the worship of the one true God to that of a molten calf. Before the puny creation of their own hands, they bow in worship and sacrifice.

The author of Psalm 51 readily admits his guilt and sin before a God of goodness and compassion. St. Paul speaks bluntly of the way he was and the manner in which he lived his life before coming to faith in Jesus. He was - he candidly admits - a blasphemer and a persecutor of God's holy people. His was an unparalleled spiritual arrogance. Finally, the Gospel relates the familiar story of a profligate younger son who squanders all his inheritance in a reckless and dissolute life and, in the process, breaks his father's heart.

What is the point of this litany of sin, guilt, human weakness and failure? It is the dark side of Gospel Good News, the bleak background against which the bright beauty and sheer graciousness of Jesus' redemptive deed shines out in all its splendor. It is the humble acknowledgment of one's total powerlessness and loss as the result of having sinned against a good and compassionate God. This humility, this truth about ourselves, is the necessary precondition for being able to hear the clarion call of the Good News of faith and to receive in gratitude the healing power of grace.

Today, too often we are hesitant to speak of sin today, especially of personal sin. We do not like to acknowledge that we have rejected God or have turned aside from the way he has pointed to us in Scripture in the example and word of Jesus and in the teachings of his Church: Yet, it is just such an acknowledgement, in humility and truth, that readies us for the freeing experience of God's tender and forgiving grace.

Saints are converted sinners. This truth is what is proclaimed loud and clear in the Scriptures today. Grace takes the weak and wobbly - even the most heart-hardened sinners - and transforms them into saints and heroes.

St. Francis de Sales had a great respect for the example of saints, but he wanted people to see the saints in a realistic manner, that is, as weak and sinful people who, through the transforming power of grace, had become heroes. St. Peter was such a hero for Francis. He was captivated by this man who, though often heroic and always well-meaning, was nevertheless frequently short on courage ("I do not know the man!") or weak in understanding what Jesus really stood for ("Get behind me, you Satan!"), and who more than once fell flat on his face. Yet, what a giant that man became through grace! In St. Peter, Francis de Sales found it spiritually useful to speak of a man with whose failures his people could relate, and of a saint whose holiness they could imitate. His hero had warts. In pointing them out, he was in effect, encouraging others in their quest for holiness.

Let us end with St. Paul's exuberant hymn of praise in today's second reading. It celebrates the triumph of grace over human sin and weakness: “To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

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(September 16, 2019: Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs)
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“I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.”

In his letter to Timothy, Paul invites his audience to pray that all “may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.” The two saints we remember today may have prayed for this intention, but they certainly didn’t experience it.

Saint Cornelius was elected Pope in 251 during the persecutions of the Emperor Decius. His first challenge, besides the ever-present threat of the Roman authorities, was to bring an end to the schism brought on by his rival, the first anti-pope Novatian. He convened a synod of bishops to confirm himself as the rightful successor of Peter.

“A great controversy that arose as a result of the Decian persecution was whether or not the Church could pardon and receive back into the Church those who had apostatized in the face of martyrdom. Against both the bishops who argued that the Church could not welcome back apostates, and those who argued that they should be welcomed back but did not demand a heavy penance of the penitent, Cornelius decreed that they must be welcomed back and insisted that they perform an adequate penance. In 253 Cornelius was exiled by the emperor Gallus and died of the hardships he endured in exile. He is venerated as a martyr.”

“Saint Cyprian of Carthage is second in importance only to the great Saint Augustine as a figure and Father of the African church. He was a close friend of Pope Cornelius and supported him both against the anti-pope Novatian and in his views concerning the re-admittance of apostates into the Church.”

“His writings are of great importance, especially his treatise on The Unity of the Catholic Church, in which he argues that unity is grounded in the authority of the bishop, and among the bishops, in the primacy of the See of Rome. In this work, St. Cyprian wrote, ‘You cannot have God for your Father if you do not have the Church for your mother.... God is one and Christ is one, and his Church is one; one is the faith, and one is the people cemented together by harmony into the strong unity of a body.... If we are the heirs of Christ, let us abide in the peace of Christ; if we are the sons of God, let us be lovers of peace.’”

“During the Decian persecutions Cyprian considered it wiser to go into hiding and guide his flock covertly rather than seek the glorious crown of martyrdom, a decision that his enemies attempted to use to discredit him.

On September 14, 258, however, he was martyred during the persecutions of the emperor Valerian.” (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=596)

Whether in times of tranquility – or in times of trouble – may the examples of Cornelius and Cyprian inspire us do our level best to live a life of devotion and dignity.

Come what may!

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(September 17, 2019: Robert Bellarmine, Bishop/Doctor of the Church)
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“Whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task.”

“A contemporary of St. Francis de Sales, St. Robert Bellarmine was the third of ten children. He entered the newly formed Society of Jesus in 1560 and after his ordination went on to teach at Louvain (1570-1576) where he became famous for his Latin sermons. In 1576, he was appointed to the chair of controversial theology at the Roman College, becoming Rector in 1592. He went on to become Provincial of Naples in 1594 and Cardinal in 1598.”

“This outstanding scholar and devoted servant of God defended the Apostolic See against the anti-clericals in Venice and against the political tenets of James I of England. He composed an exhaustive apologetic work against the prevailing heretics of his day. In the field of church-state relations, he took a position based on principles now regarded as fundamentally democratic: authority originates with God, but is vested in the people, who entrust it to fit rulers.”

“This saint was the spiritual father of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, helped St. Francis de Sales obtain formal approval of the Visitation Order, and in his prudence opposed severe action in the case of Galileo. He has left us a host of important writings, including works of devotion and instruction, as well as controversy. He died in 1621.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=101)

Robert Bellarmine’s support of Francis de Sales was not limited to the formal approval of the Visitation Order. In fact, Bellarmine had been helpful to Francis de Sales nearly sixteen years earlier while the latter – then a newly-ordained priest – was engaged as a missionary in the Chablais. In a letter (February 1609) addressed to Pierre de Villars, Archbishop of Vienne, Francis wrote:

“I have some material for introducing beginners to the exercise of evangelical preaching which I would like to follow up with a methodical study for the conversion of heretics by holy preaching. In this last book I should like to demolish – by way of practical method – all the most obvious and celebrated arguments of our adversaries, and that not only in a style that will instruct, but also move, so that the book will not only serve for the consolation of Catholics but for the conversion of heretics. I intend to use towards this project some meditations that I composed during my five years in the Chablais where the only books I had to help me in my preaching were the Bible and those of the great Bellarmine.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pp. 164-165)

Clearly, the office to which Robert Bellarmine aspired was a noble one. In the opinion of countless people – including that of St. Francis de Sales – Bellarmine accomplished his office in a most noble fashion.

How might we follow their examples – two bishops, saints and Doctors of the Church – in whatever offices to which we aspire today?

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(September 18, 2019: Wednesday, Twenty-fourth Week Ordinary Time)
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“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?”

You’re dammed if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

That’s essentially what Jesus is saying in today’s election from the Gospel of Luke. John the Baptist was criticized for eschewing food and drink, whereas Jesus was criticized for enjoying food and drink. Try as you might to do the right thing – try as you might to be true to yourself - some days you just can’t win!

St. Francis de Sales was certainly no stranger to the dynamic of being damned if you do and damned if you don’t, especially when it comes to trying to live a life of devotion. Citing this very selection from today’s Gospel, he observed:

“We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with it. It is so demanding that it can’t be satisfied. ‘John came neither eating nor drinking,’ says the Savior, and you say, ‘He has a devil.’ ‘The Son of man came eating and drinking’ and you say that he is ‘a Samaritan’ If we are ready to laugh, play cards or dance with the world in order to please it, it will be scandalized at us, and if we don’t, it will accuse us of hypocrisy or melancholy. If we dress well, it will attribute it to some plan we have, and if neglect our attire, it will accuse us of being cheap and stingy. Good humor will be called frivolity and mortification sullenness. Thus the world looks at us with an evil eye and we can never please it. It exaggerates our imperfections and claims they are sins, turns our venial sins into mortal sins and changes our sins of weakness into sins of malice.”

“The world always thinks evil and when it can’t condemn our acts it will condemn our intentions. Whether the sheep have horns or not and whether they are white or black, the wolf won’t hesitate to eat them if he can. Whatever we do, the world will wage war on us. If we stay a long time in the confessional, it will wonder how we can so much to say; if we stay only a short time, it will say we haven’t told everything….The world holds us to be fools; let us hold it to be mad.” (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 2, pp. 236-237)

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t? Well, then, why not be damned for doing what is virtuous, right and good!

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Spirituality Matters 2019: September 5th - September 11th

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(September 5, 2019: Thursday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord…”

In a letter to Madame de la Flechere, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Don’t be examining yourself to see if what you are doing is a little or much, good or bad, provided that it is not sinful and that – in all good faith – you are trying to do it for God. As much as possible, do well what you have to do, and once it is done, think no more about it but turn your attention to what has to be done next. Walk very simply along the way our Lord shows you and don’t worry. We must hate our faults, but we should do so calmly and peacefully, without fuss or anxiety…” (Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. 161)

To walk in a manner worthy of the Lord – to follow Christ, to “Live + Jesus” – is a daunting task. But what makes it more doable – and enjoyable – is to walk the Lord’s ways calmly and peacefully, without fuss or anxiety.

Godspeed during your walk today!

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(September 6, 2019: Friday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation...”

The Incarnation is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith: the Word became flesh – the invisible God become all-so-visible – in the person of Jesus Christ. (Creation is the other!)

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Just as God created ‘man in his image and likeness,’ so also he ordained for man a love in the image and likeness of the love due to his divinity. He says: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Why do we love God? ‘The reason we love God is God himself,’ says St. Bernard, as if to say that we love God because he is the most supreme and infinite goodness. Why do we love ourselves in charity? Surely, it is because we are God’s image and likeness. Since all men have this same dignity, we also love them as ourselves, that is, in their character is most holy and living images of the divinity.” (TLG, Book X, Chapter 11, pp. 170-171)

Insofar as we are sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus – temples of the Holy Spirit – we, too, are images of the invisible God. How do we make the invisible God visible?

By – and through – our love for ourselves and one another.

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(September 7, 2019: Saturday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)
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“God has now reconciled you…”

In a letter to Sr. Anne-Marie Rosset, Assistant and Novice Mistress at Dijon, St. Jane de Chantal wrote:

“God knows the pain I feel in my heart over the misunderstanding that exists in your house. I ask the Lord to take it in hand. In the end, if a reconciliation doesn’t occur, you will have to find a way of sending away the sister who is the cause of it all. No good ever comes from the sisters wanting to control the superior; if they were humble and submissive, all would go well. Indeed, my very dear Sister, the one who governs there has done so very successfully elsewhere, and this ought to keep the sisters in peace. Help them to understand this as far as you can so that there may be humble and cordial submission in the house. Help the sister in question to unite herself to her superior and to be sincerely open with her. Oh, is this the behavior the way to honor the memory of him who so often recommended peace to us and union? What a dangerous temptation! May God, in His goodness, straighten this out! And we shall do what we can – with God’s help – to remedy the situation.” (LSD, p. 247)

Every family – every community – every organization or group – has its share of difficulties and divisions, and as this letter clearly shows, even cloistered, contemplative women. But note some of the ingredients that St. Jane identifies as critical in any attempts to bring about resolution and reconciliation. These include:

• Being humble

• Being submissive

• Being peaceful/peaceable

• Being understanding

• Being sincere

• Being open

And most important of all:

• Asking for God’s help

Is there anyone in your life with whom you need to be reconciled? While there are few - if any - guarantees in life, following the suggestions given above might go a long way in helping you to experience the peace and union that Jesus won for us at the price of his own life.

Why wait for tomorrow to pursue a path toward reconciliation that you could begin today…with God’s help?

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(September 8, 2019: Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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"If one of you decides to build a tower, will you not first sit down and calculate the outlay to see if you can accomplish the project?"

Life can be frustrating enough at times without making it worse by failing to look ahead. How many times have we had to go back to the grocery store because we didn't first make a list of what we needed to buy? How often have we run to Lowe’s or Home Depot three, four, five times or more on the same day because we simply didn't take the time to first consider all the materials that we would need in order to accomplish a project? How many vacations or trips have been soured because we failed first to sit down and consider all the things we should bring?

Anything worth doing - no matter how simple or complex - is worth doing well. And the first step in doing something well is to plan ahead.

We clearly hear echoes of this truth in the parable from Luke's Gospel. Jesus admonishes his audience to determine first what it is they will need to complete an important task before embarking on the task itself. For his part, St. Francis de Sales recommends:

"Be careful and attentive to all the matters that God has committed to your care. Since God has confided them to you, God wishes you to have great care for them."

Of course, we know that the Salesian tradition cautions us not to become so obsessed with advanced planning that we become anxious or compulsive. However, this same tradition cautions us against performing tasks or projects in a careless or haphazard manner. Our own experience clearly demonstrates that when we fail to plan we are frequently planning to fail.

Take a page from the life of Jesus himself. Before undertaking his public ministry, he went into the desert where he no doubt took stock of all that he would need to accomplish God's great project for him: the salvation of the human family. Jesus didn't begin his ministry in a haphazard fashion; he didn't make it up as he went along. He was deliberate; he was prudent. Before he began his ministry in earnest, he first considered all that he would need - with the Father's love - to redeem all creation through his life, love, passion, death and resurrection.

God has entrusted to us the most important of all projects: to continue Christ's work on earth and to be sources of God's peace, justice, reconciliation, truth, hope, care, concern and love for one another. Like the tower in today's Gospel parable, accomplishing this task can sometimes be a tall order indeed. Few of us, however, have the luxury of setting aside forty days in the desert to determine what we need in order to follow God's will - to be the kind of people that God calls us to be. When are we supposed to calculate what we'll need to be successful - to be faithful - in pursuing this greatest of all projects?

How about starting with the first few minutes of every new day?

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(September 9, 2019: Peter Claver, Priest)
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“It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”

“A contemporary of St. Francis de Sales, St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. He studied at the Jesuit college of Barcelona, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona in 1602 and took his final vows on August 8th, 1604. While studying philosophy at Majorca, the young religious was influenced by St. Alphonsus Rodriguez to go to the Indies and save ‘millions of perishing souls.’”

“In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principal slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. After his ordination in 1616, he dedicated himself by special vow to the service of the Negro slaves - a work that was to last for thirty-three years. He labored unceasingly for the salvation of the African slaves and the abolition of the Negro slave trade, and the love he lavished on them was something that transcended the natural order.”

“Boarding the slave ships as they entered the harbor, he would hurry to the revolting inferno of the hold, and offer whatever poor refreshments he could afford; he would care for the sick and dying, and instruct the slaves through Negro catechists before administering the Sacraments. Through his efforts three hundred thousand souls entered the Church. Furthermore, he did not lose sight of his converts when they left the ships, but followed them to the plantations to which they were sent, encouraged them to live as Christians, and prevailed on their masters to treat them humanely. He died in 1654.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=94)

Peter Claver seems to have taken Paul’s admonition to ‘teach everyone’ quite literally by traveling to a different hemisphere and spending over thirty years of his life ministering to African slaves.

How can we model his example of dedicated service to those with whom we live and work close to home today?

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(September 10, 2019: Tuesday, Twenty-third Week Ordinary Time)
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“Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.”

Tomorrow we will commemorate the twelfth anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

In preparation for that commemoration, we might do well to pray for all those people in need of healing in the wake of such horrific injury, pain and loss by asking God to comfort, sustain and heal them.

For that matter, we also might also ask ourselves how we might be instruments of that same comforting, sustaining and healing Jesus in the lives of others we know who have sustained injury, pain and loss closer to home.

Just today.

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(September 11, 2019: Wednesday, Twenty-third Week Ordinary Time)
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“Think of what is above…”

People around the world – and especially in the United States – observe this day as a day of remembrance for the victims of the terror attack of September 11, 2001.

“In October 2001, the United States Congress passed a joint resolution designating that every September 11th be observed as "Patriot Day." The resolution requests that U.S. government entities and interested organizations and individuals display the flag of the United States at half staff and that the people of the United States observe a moment of silence in honor of the individuals who lost their lives. In 2009, a presidential proclamation declared that Patriot Day is also a ‘National Day of Service.’ The proclamation calls on Americans to ‘participate in community service in honor of those our Nation lost, to observe this day with other ceremonies and activities, including remembrance services ... to honor the innocent victims who perished as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.’” (http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/september-11/)

On th**is day of remembrance and service, listen to the words of Jesus from today’s Gospel:

• “Blessed are you who are poor,

• or the Kingdom of God is yours.

• Blessed are you who are now hungry,

• for you will be satisfied.

• Blessed are you who are now weeping,

• or you will laugh.

• Blessed are you when people hate you,

• and when they exclude and insult you,

• and denounce your name as evil

• on account of the Son of Man.”

As we spend this day thinking of “what is above,” let us recommit ourselves to living our earthly lives here below in a heavenly way by being a source of beatitude – that is, a blessing – in the lives of others.

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Spirituality Matters 2019: August 29th - September 4th

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(August 29, 2019: The Passion of St. John the Baptist)
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“Stand firm in the Lord...”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“All the martyrs died for divine love. When we say that many of them died for the faith, we must not imply that it was for a ‘dead faith’ but rather for a living faith, that is, faith animated by charity. Moreover, our confession of faith is not so much an act of the intellect as an act of the will and love of God. For this reason, on the day of the Passion the great St. Peter preserved his faith in his soul – but lost charity – since he refused in words to admit as Master Him whom in his heart he acknowledged to be such. But there are other martyrs who died expressly for charity alone. Such was the Savior’s great Precursor who suffered martyrdom because he gave fraternal correction…” (TLG, Book VII, Chapter 10, pp. 40-41)

We see in John the Baptist one who stood firm in the Lord. As the herald of Jesus both before and after the latter’s baptism in the Jordan, John respected, honored and loved the Lord, as well as the things, values and standards of the Lord. His willingness to stand firm in the Lord and in the ways of the Lord impelled him to call Herod on his immoral lifestyle (taking his brother’s wife to be his own) in a very public forum. His willingness to stand firm in the Lord and in the ways of Lord ultimately cost John his life.

John didn’t lose his head over some mere intellectual principle: he gave it because of something he believed from – and in – the depth of his heart.

How far are we willing to go for the things, the values and the people that we hold deeply in our hearts, presuming, of course, we possess such deep, heartfelt convictions?

Today on what issues – and for whom – are we willing to stand firm, whatever the cost?

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(August 30, 2019: Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time)
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“God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.”

In the book Saints are not Sad (1949,) we read

“Holiness, in Francis de Sales’ conception of it, should be an all-around quality without abruptness or eccentricity. It should not involve the suppression in us of anything that is not in itself bad, for the likeness to God which is its essence must be incomplete in the proportion that it does not extend to the whole of us. So, we must be truthful to ourselves and about ourselves, and we shall lose as much by not seeing the good that really is in us as by fancying that we see good that is not there at all. It is as right and due that we should thank God for the virtue that His grace has established in us as that we should ask His forgiveness for our sinfulness that hinders His grace.” (Select Salesian Subjects, # 0377, p. 85)

God calls us to holiness. God calls us to walk in his ways. Imperfect as we are, we can make great progress in this quest by accepting the grace of God, by putting God’s grace to work in action and by relying on the love, support and encouragement of others. This call to holiness also challenges us to be truthful with ourselves and about ourselves - to recognize what is good in us, as well as anything in us needing to be purified. While we will always be imperfect, there is always a place for more purity in our own lives and in our lives with one another.

How can we live in – and practice – that truth today?

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(August 31, 2019: Saturday of the Twenty-first Week of the Year)
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"Mind your own affairs, and work with your own hands…”

In a conference to the Visitation Sisters, Francis de Sales wrote:

“It in indeed for us to labor diligently, but it is for God to crown our labors with success. Let us not be at all eager in our work – for in order to do it well, we must apply ourselves to it carefully indeed – but calmly and peacefully, without trusting in our own labor, but in God and in His grace.” (Conference VII, “Three Spiritual Laws”, p. 112)

Perhaps this is what was lacking in the case of one of the three servants cited in the parable of the talents in today’s Gospel. Two of the servants present their master, who had just come home, with a return on the talents. Whereas the third servant merely returned single talent to his master (after retrieving it from the spot where he had buried it earlier) without having made any attempt of doing something with it.

Why did the one servant fail to make even the slightest attempt to return his master’s talent with some semblance of interest? It turns out he was afraid of his master. Paraphrasing Francis de Sales’ words above, perhaps the reason the servant didn’t trust in his own labor was that – ultimately – he did not trust in his master. By contrast, the other two servants appear to have had every confidence and trust in their master, regardless of how much – or how little – a return that they would ultimately make on their master’s investment.

In an exhortation to the Sisters of the Visitation, Jane de Chantal once remarked:

“Let us redouble our efforts at serving God and one another faithfully, especially in small and simple ways. God expects only that which we can do, but that which we can do God clearly expects. Therefore, let us be diligent in giving our best to God, leaving the rest in the hands of God’s infinite generosity.” (Based upon St. Jane de Chantal’s Exhortation for the last Saturday of 1629, On the Shortness of Life. Found in Conferences of St. Jane de Chantal. Newman Bookshop: Westminster, Maryland. 1947. Pages 106 – 107)

We may not always know how God wants us to make use of all the talents, gifts and blessings that he has given us, but one thing is certain: doing nothing with them is totally unacceptable.

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(September 1, 2019: Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”

How do we find favor with God by humbling ourselves? For that matter, when we humble ourselves, what are we really doing?

First, humility challenges us to avoid two extremes in life: the temptations to either exalt ourselves or trash ourselves. Francis de Sales offered very concrete examples of how to do this.

"I don't want to play either the fool or the wise man, for if humility forbids me to play the sage, candor and sincerity forbid me to act the fool. Just as I would not parade knowledge even of what I actually know; so, by contrast, I would not pretend to be ignorant of it. Humility conceals and covers the other virtues in order to preserve them, but it also reveals them when charity so requires in order that we might enlarge, increase and perfect them." (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 5)

On a deeper level, humility is about acknowledging both our littleness and God's greatness.

"Let us consider what God has done for us and what we have done against God, and as we reflect upon our sins one by one let us also consider God's graces one by one. There is no need to fear that the knowledge of God's gifts will make us proud if only we remember this truth: none of the good in us comes from ourselves alone." (Ibid)

Finally, having a balanced view of ourselves, acknowledging our littleness and God's greatness, and being grateful for God's fidelity to us, lead us to live lives of generosity.

"Generous minds do not amuse themselves with the petty toys of rank, honor and titles. They have other things to do. Such things belong only to idle minds. Those who own pearls do not bother about shells, while those who aspire to virtue do not trouble themselves over honors." (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 4)

Humbling ourselves is not about putting ourselves down. No, humbling ourselves is about taking our rightful place in life - beneficiaries of God's love for us and instruments of God's love in the lives of other people.

Humility is ultimately about coming to know our place in God’s plan of salvation and having the courage to take and embrace it. This true humility, in turn, should lead us to gently and respectfully encourage others in their quest to likewise know their place in God’s plan of salvation and to have the courage to take it.

What better way of finding favor with God than by pursuing this quest together!

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(September 2, 2019: Labor Day)
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“He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…”

The selection from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah that is cited in today’s Gospel lists signs associated with the coming of the Messiah – liberty to captives, sight to the blind and freeing the oppressed.

That requires a great deal of work!

Labor Day offers us a great opportunity to reflect upon the great work to which each of us is called – to continue the creating, healing and inspiring action of Jesus Christ in the lives of others in ways that fit the state and stage of life in which we find ourselves. Eucharistic Prayer IV puts it this way:

“Father, we acknowledge your greatness: all your actions show your wisdom and love. You formed man in your own likeness and set him over the whole world to serve you, his creator, and to rule over all creatures…To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to those in sorrow, joy…And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as his first gift to those who believe, to complete his work on earth…”

On this Labor Day how might we do something to help complete Christ’s work on earth in our relationships with one another?

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(September 3, 2019: Gregory the Great, Pope/Doctor of the Church)
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“Encourage one another and build one another up…”

In the beginning of Part III of his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Some virtues have almost general use and must not only produce their own acts but also communicate their qualities to the acts of all the other virtues. Occasions do not often present themselves for the exercise of fortitude, magnanimity and great generosity, but meekness, temperance, integrity and humility are virtues that must mark all our actions in life. We must always have on hand a good supply of these general virtues since we can use them almost constantly.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 1)

Using St. Paul’s words, there are lots of ways to encourage and build up other people. Gregory the Great did it by practicing the virtue of hospitality. Francis de Sales noted:

“Following Abraham’s example, St. Gregory the Great liked to entertain pilgrims and like Abraham he received the King of Glory in the form of a pilgrim.” (Ibid, page. 123)

Today what virtues might we employ in our attempts to encourage and build up others?

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(September 4, 2019: Wednesday, Twenty-second Week Ordinary Time)
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“Just as in the whole world the Good News is bearing fruit and growing, so also among you…"

Near the beginning of Part I of his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When he created things God commanded plants to bring forth their fruits, each one according to its kind. In like manner God commands Christians – the living plants of the Church – to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each according to one’s position and vocation. Devotion must be exercised in different ways by the gentleman, the laborer, the servant, the prince, the young girl and the married woman. Not only is this true but the practice of devotion must also be adapted to the strengths, activities and duties of each particular person.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 1)

We are the living plants of the Church. That being so, what kind of fruits can we produce in the lives of others in our attempts help grow the Good News of Jesus Christ in our own little corners of the world today?

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Spirituality Matters 2019: August 22nd - August 28th

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(August 22, 2019: Queenship of Mary)
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“Many are invited, but few are chosen...”

We are all familiar with the story of the Annunciation. An angel appears to Mary, announcing that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah. Notwithstanding a bit of foreboding and a few understandable questions that she posed to the angel; the scene ends with Mary accepting the invitation to play her role in God’s plan of salvation.

Mary’s affirmative response to God’s invitation is in stark contrast to the apathy of many portrayed in today’s Gospel parable. The “king” (obviously, God) repeatedly invites people from hill and dale to accept his invitation to attend his son’s wedding. (By extension, God is asking people to say “yes” to the power, promise and possibilities embodied in his Son, Jesus.) These people simply couldn’t care less, prompting the king to cast his net of hospitality further and further afield.

On any given day God invites each of us to play our unique role in God’s ongoing plan of salvation. Each and every day God invites us to draw nearer to the feast that is his Son, Jesus Christ. Today, how will we respond to God’s invitation to the feast?

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(August 23, 2019: Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

The question put to Jesus in today’s Gospel is not an exercise of ‘Trivial Pursuit.’ This is not mere rhetoric. Ultimately, it is a question of life and death. Jesus’ answer is direct and to the point: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

And when he describes the second as “like” the first, Jesus is saying that the two commandments are essentially one in the same.

In a letter to Madame Brulart, Francis de Sales wrote:

“We must consider our neighbors n God who wishes us to love and cherish them must exercise this love of our neighbor, making our affection manifest by our actions. Although we may sometimes feel that this runs against the grain, we must not give up our efforts on that account. We ought to bring our prayers and meditations to focus on this point, for, after having asked for the love of God, we must likewise ask for the love of our neighbor.” (Living Jesus, 0618, p. 246)

Today, how can we put these two great commandments into practice?

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(August 24, 2019: St. Bartholomew, Apostle)
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“Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom…”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“You can see how God – by progressive stages filled with unutterable sweetness – leads the soul forward and enables it to leave the Egypt of sin. He leads it from love to love, as from dwelling to dwelling, until He has made it enter into the Promised Land. By this I mean that God brings it into most holy charity, which, to state it succinctly, is a form of friendship…Such friendship is true friendship, since it is reciprocal, for God has eternally loved all those who have loved Him, who now love Him or who will love Him in time…He has openly revealed all His secrets to us as to His closest friends…” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 22, pp. 160 - 161)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is clear and unambiguous about the quality that makes Bartholomew (a.k.a., Nathaniel) a friend of God: “There is no guile in him.” There is no pretense in Bartholomew – nothing fake, nothing phony. Jesus sees him as a man who is real, authentic and transparent - he is an open book.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales offered some practical advice regarding how to practice the virtue of guilelessness

“Your language should be retrained, frank, sincere, candid unaffected and honest…As the sacred Scripture tells us, The Holy Spirit does not dwell in a deceitful or tricky soul. No artifice is so good and desirable as plain dealing. Worldly prudence and carnal artifice belong to the children of this world, but the children (the friends) of God walk a straight path and their hearts are without guile.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 30, p. 206)

Do you want to be a friend of God today? Like Bartholomew, strive to be guileless. Simply try to be yourself – nothing more, and nothing less.

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(August 25, 2019: Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time)
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“Go out to all the world and tell the good news.”

Pope Paul VI defined evangelization as "bringing the Good News into all strata of humanity and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new."

In their book entitled Creating the Evangelizing Parish, Paulist Fathers Frank DeSiano and Kenneth Boyack challenge us to accept this simple truth: each of us is called to be an evangelist, to “go out to all the world and tell the Good News,” and to give witness to the power and promise of God's redeeming love in our lives. (Paulist Press, 1993)

While the good news is essentially the same, the authors insist that the manner and method in which each of us evangelizes must be rooted in the state and stage of life in which we find ourselves. For a deeper understanding of what this means, they turn to our old friend and companion, St. Francis de Sales:

“St. Francis de Sales wrote a marvelous book entitled The Introduction to the Devout Life. In it he makes the simple yet profound point that a follower (a disciple) of Jesus should look at his or her situation in life and then live a Christian life accordingly. A wife and mother will find holiness in the way she lives in relation to her husband, and in taking care of the family. She could hardly leave her family many times each day, like monks or nuns, to attend Liturgy of the Hours...Her spirituality, her way of following Christ is determined by her vocation and lifestyle...and if she works, living out her vocation as a married woman bearing witness to Christ in the workplace.”

We are made in the image and likeness of God. We are redeemed by the life, love, death and resurrection of Jesus. We are inspired and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This acclamation is indeed Good News! This Good News should make a difference in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we love, live, work pray and play. This Good News should transform and renew us. Through us, this Good News offers the possibility of transformation and renewal to others.

How we share this Good News -- how we evangelize -- depends on who we are, where we are and how we are. How we share this Good News must match the state, stage, circumstances, responsibilities, routines and relationships in which we find ourselves each day. Following Jesus is not about forsaking our ordinary lives. No, it is about making real the life and love of God in our thoughts, feelings attitudes and actions.

Evangelization has a lot to do with what we say. After all, it is about ‘telling’ something, which in this case, is the Good News of God. However, evangelization also has a lot to do (perhaps even more) with what we do. What we say is a convincing sign of God's love only insofar as it is congruent with how we relate to one another.

By all means - by any means - "go out to all the world and tell the Good News" of God's love, God's forgiveness, God's justice and God's peace. But most especially, do it in the places - with the people - where you live, work, pray and play every day.

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(August 26, 2019: Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time)
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"We give thanks to God always…unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love.”

You can hear the happiness in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. His joy flows from reminding himself of the “work of faith and labor of love” in the members of that early faith community.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When our mind is raised above the natural light of reason and begins to see the sacred truth of faith, O God, what joy ensues! The holy light of faith is filled with delight!” (Select Salesian Subjects, #0263, p. 58)

What a contrast with how Jesus describes the scribes and Pharisees! Their faith produces no good works; their love is lacking. Their faith is anything but happy. Jesus simply describes what is painfully obvious about them in his litany of “woes” that begin with today’s Gospel and continue thorough Wednesday’s Gospel. In a word, these people were just plain miserable.

How do people experience the gift of faith in us? Are we sources of happiness – or woe – in the lives of others?

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(August 27, 2019: St. Monica)
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“We drew courage through our God to speak the Gospel of God with much struggle."

“St. Monica was married by arrangement to a pagan official in North Africa, who was much older than she, and although generous, was also violent tempered. His mother lived with them and was equally difficult, which proved a constant challenge to St. Monica. She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua. Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband and his mother to the Christian faith in 370. He died a year later. Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious life. St. Augustine was much more difficult, as she had to pray for him for seventeen years, begging the prayers of priests who - for a while - tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did attempt to encourage her by saying, ‘It is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.’ This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received, strengthened her in her prayers and hopes for her son. Finally, St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387. St. Monica died later that same year in the Italian town of Ostia, on the way back to Africa from Rome.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1)

We can all relate to Saint Monica. We all have people in our lives for whom we want the best. We all have people in our lives that we want to be happy. We all have people in our lives about whom we have concerns and heartaches. Of course, as much as we might love someone else, we cannot live their lives for them. Sometimes the most we can do is to pray for them, encourage them and support them. As for the rest, we need leave it in the hands of God and hope that God will do His best.

Saint Monica is a model of courage. We see in her struggles the power that flows from a life of prayer and perseverance.

How can we imitate her example today, especially when it comes to loved ones about whom we care so deeply?

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(August 28, 2019: Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church)
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“Walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom…”

“This famous son of St. Monica was born in Africa and spent many years of his life in wicked living and in false beliefs. Though he was one of the most intelligent men who ever lived and though he had been raised a Christian, his sins of impurity and his pride closed his mind to divine truth. Through the prayers of his holy mother and the marvelous preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine gradually became convinced that Christianity was indeed the one true faith. Yet he did not become a Christian even then, because he thought he could never live a pure life.”

“One day, however, he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted after reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terribly ashamed of himself. ‘What are we doing?’ he cried to his friend Alipius. ‘Unlearned people are taking heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!’ Full of bitter sorrow, Augustine cried out to God, ‘How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?’ Just then he heard a child singing, ‘Take up and read!’ Thinking that God intended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of St. Paul and read the first passage upon which his gaze fell. It was just what Augustine needed, for in it, St. Paul said to put away all impurity and to live in imitation of Jesus. That did it! From then on, Augustine began a new life. (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418)

In his Letter to the Thessalonians, the same Paul who had such a powerful influence in the life of Augustine challenges us to “walk in a manner worthy of God.” Desirable as that goal may be, the ability to walk in God’s ways – as we see so clearly in the life of Saint Augustine – doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. For most of us, walking in a manner worthy of God isn’t just a sprint – it’s a marathon!

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