Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

The Second Sorrowful Mystery: The Scourging at the Pillar

The path of faithfulness to the will of the Father is difficult. Our Lord is scourged at the pillar and endures horrible torture out of love for us. Ask Our Lady to help you pray this decade to experience sorrow for your sins that cause the Lord to suffer so greatly.

--from Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and & Mysteries by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

When someone experiences the love of God and converts everything seems so easy. Suddenly doing the will of the Father is not a task but a delight. Yet at some point the "felt" empowering love leaves the individual and it as though one is set free into a fog where one is not sure anymore.

The Passion of the Lord has been meditated since the inception of Christianity as the sure path of navigating these difficult waters. Trust in God, in the valley of darkness becomes the keystone of a person's faith. St. Ignatius of Loyola counseled remembering frequently the past consolations given by God during such periods--no doubt this counsel was inspired by the Psalmist who in the midst of trials would "remember" leading the rejoicing crowds into the Temple.

Following Christ is not easy. Doing the will of God requires a submission to His love as we walk our own Calvary path behind Christ. When Christianity fails to preach this hard truth it ceases to be Christianity. The suffering of the present moment is nothing compared to the glory that awaits those who trust in Him, as St. Paul counseled the early Church.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

The First Luminous Mystery: The Baptism of the Lord

Our Lord, though innocent, takes on our sins as He enters the water of Jordan and is baptized by John. His mission of our salvation is blessed by the Father's praise and the Spirit's descent. Ask Our Lady to help you pray this decade, pondering the light that comes from submission to the will of God.

--from Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and & Mysteries by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

"I must decrease, He must increase" St. John the Baptist told his disciples after his encounter with Christ. Our submission to the will of God begins with our submission to Christ--our own dying with Him and rising anew in Him at our Baptism. But the act of submission needs to happen at every moment of the day. Every second brings with it a moment of prayer--will I submit to my will against His or will I bow down to His authority and choose Him. The world may cry out "I've got to be me," but the servant of God cries out "I've got to be His." St. Paul reiterates this when he declares, "I live, no not I, but Christ."

We fear this repentance. We secretly grieve that we won't be ourselves if we submit. Something within at a very early age urges us to resist (original sin) and it does not go away quietly. So many of us are slowly perishing, spending our demise judging others, living in darkness.

The biblical notion of this state of humanity is that of something that is lost. Will we continue to cling on to the lost being or will we allow ourselves to be found by Christ--at this moment and at every moment walking in His light and overcoming the darkness of the lost?

New Shrine for Soon to be Indiana Saint

From the Indianapolis Star (photo too):

In a scene most spectators said they never expect to witness again, a new
coffin bearing the remains of a woman about to be declared a Catholic saint was
installed in a new shrine 150 years after her death.
The simple box, hand-crafted from walnut trees grown on the grounds Guerin walked as a 19th-century nun, was placed next to a display featuring three bones from her hand.
For nearly 100 years, Guerin's remains had been stored beneath the floor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, an Italianesque church here at the headquarters of the Sisters of Providence, near the village of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.

Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

We need a modern version!

From the Office of Readings:

It was through his archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though he was wealthy beyond reckoning, he still willingly chose to be poor with his blessed mother. And shortly before his passion he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Then he prayed to his Father saying: Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken from me.Nevertheless, he reposed his will in the will of his Father. The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in his footsteps. And he desires all of us to be saved through him, and to receive him with pure heart and chaste body.O how happy and blessed are those who love the Lord and do as the Lord himself said in the gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul; and your neighbour as yourself. Therefore, let us love God and adore him with pure heart and mind. This is his particular desire when he says: True worshippers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore him must do so in the spirit of truth. Let us also direct to him our praises and prayers saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, since we must always pray and never grow slack.Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbours as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do his work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection of Our Lord

The disciple whom Jesus loves peers into the empty tomb and believes. Ask Our Lady to help you to pray this decade to experience the hope of those who believe in her Son's glorious resurrection.

--from Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and & Mysteries by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

It is a grace that many of us can only imagine the horror of peering into the emptiness. There is little doubt that most sin is an escape from having to peer into the emptiness. But the empty tomb that the Beloved Disciple peers into is in fact not empty--there are relics left behind of the shroud and cloth that covered the face of Jesus. He sees that Jesus is not there, but the cloths that covered him are still there--add to that the love that explains when there is no explanation and you have Faith.

Pope Benedict's first encyclical was on this very topic, the love that is God. Believing that God loves is the first step to true repentance, metanoia "turning in a completely different direction" away from self and toward the other--God. When we believe that God loves us, we look beyond, further than we look when we do not believe. When we do not believe that God loves us we are apt to interpret everything that happens to us in a negative way--as the worst thing that could happen to us. But when we believe that God loves us, everything is seen in a new light.

We peer into the emptiness, indeed we even dare to look at what is not there, and we believe!

For an example of how radical this is consider this reflecting a recent and horrific tragedy:

As Mary and Ben explained the day's violence to their sons, they emphasized the
importance of forgiveness and trusting in God.
"I just feel bad for the gunman," said Mary's husband, Ben, 41. "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."
While outsiders might be surprised at the forgiveness immediately extended to Roberts, Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, said that reaction is typical.
"That theme of forgiveness really comes from the example of Jesus, who carried that spirit even to the cross," said Kraybill, a professor of Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College.
In Gospel lessons, hymns and prayer books written in German dialect, those teachings are passed down through generations in Amish settlements."I
think the Amish are much better prepared to cope with something like this than
most Americans," Kraybill said. "They see things as having a higher purpose,
there's a higher good, so they are more able to absorb and accept things in a
spirit of humility."

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Pope on Saint Bartholomew the Apostle

Wednesday audience from Asia News Italy:

"The figure of St Bartholomew, notwithstanding the scarcity of information about him, stands before us to tell us that adhesion to Christ can be lived and testified to even without the realisation of sensational works. It is Jesus himself who is and remains extraordinary; we are all called to consecrate our life and death to him."
Benedict XVI recalled the depiction of Bartholomew in the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, with skin in hand. From the story of Bartholomew, the pope suggested two fundamental pointers. One is that "freedom of God surprises our expectations, by being found right where we did not expect it" and the other is that "in our relationship with Jesus, we should not content ourselves with words". As revealed by the words of Philip to Nathaniel, "come and see", said Pope Ratzinger, "our knowledge of Jesus needs above all a living experience. The witness of someone is certainly important because it starts with the announcement that reaches us through one or more witnesses, but then we ourselves must become involved in a more personal relationship." And one should never "lose sight of neither one nor the other" of the divine and human dimensions of Jesus. "If we proclaimed only the heavenly dimension of Jesus, we would risk making him an ethereal and evanescent being and on the contrary, if we only recognised his collocation in history, we would end up by neglecting his divine dimension which is actually what qualifies him."

Idiot Marlins Fire Girardi

I think this just about does it to the 12 of us remaining loyal fans...might as well disband the team as well--at least then Loria will be without a team. Fold the Devil Rays while you're at it Bud!

From the Palm Beach Post:

Florida Marlins manager Joe Girardi was fired Tuesday, a move that had been
expected after his rift with owner Jeffrey Loria boiled over in an on-field
confrontation two months ago.
Girardi lost his job even though he's considered a strong candidate for NL manager of the year. The Marlins had baseball's youngest team and lowest payroll at $15 million, but Girardi led them to a 78-84 record, and they were in contention for a playoff berth until a late-September fade.
The cost-conscious Marlins wanted Girardi out so badly they were willing to let him go with two years left on a guaranteed three-year contract he signed in October 2005, when he became a manager for the first time.
At 41, he was the second-youngest manager in the major leagues after spending 15
years as a big-league catcher.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

The First Sorrowful Mystery: The Agony in the Garden

In the garden of Gethsemane, Our Lord experiences the weight of humanity's temptations and sins, yet in His agony He prays that God's will be done. Ask Our Lady to help you to pray this decade to experience the sorrow of the suffering Jesus and to "watch" with Him in His agony.

--from Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and & Mysteries by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

What does it mean to "watch"--why was that the injunction of Jesus to His disciples? Were they to "watch" Him in prayer? Or was He defining what prayer really is--watching?

Think of someone that you have known who you would consider a great pray-er. How do you remember them praying? Did they stare at something unseen as though they saw? Or were their eyes closed as though they saw something within?

The image used by Jesus of unbelief most frequently is blindness, "they have eyes but they do not see." Peter walked on water, until he took his eyes off of Jesus and noticed the storm.

St. Paul tells us to "pray always"--and many wonder how is this possible? "Watch."

Either you see or you do not.

The original sin involved the eyes of Eve taking her sight off of all she and Adam had in Paradise, all they had to be thankful to God for and focusing on the fruit of the forbidden tree. At the prompting of the serpent, "the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes" and she and Adam fell.

If we see the wisdom of this story as the fundamental "agony" that we are all engaged in during our lives we will "see" that the key to repentance is to "give thanks" to God in all circumstances and to "watch" lest we fall.

We are either looking for the coming of the Lord in our daily lives or looking for signs of his absence. Jesus prophesied as much to His disciples:

"But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating." Luke 12:45-47.

Is not every scandal among the followers of Christ an example of the above? Reform will come when we once again arouse from our sleep and watch with Him in the Garden of agony and temptation.

Opinion Piece on the Pope

From Herman Goodden of the London Free Press:

"There is no compulsion in religion," Benedict quotes the emperor as saying. "God is not pleased by blood -- and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats . . . To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death."

It is not the case that Benedict was only criticizing Islam for impeding constructive dialogue and tolerance between faiths. Protestantism, liberal theology, scientific rationalism and leftward fringes of Catholicism are also called on the carpet.

Some Western editorialists grumbled that the Pope's words had been "ill-considered" -- an absurd charge to lay at the feet of the major architect of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

It was only in parts of the Islamic world that violence, including the cowardly murder of an elderly nun, erupted in a sometimes stage-managed response to Benedict's lecture.

Of course, such irrational bullying and intimidation only proved Benedict's point.

Fr. Joe Classen in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

From Saint Louis Post Dispatch:

Telling the Rev. Joe Classen how much fun hunting and fishing are would be like preaching to the choir.

That's because Father Joe, 33, a Roman Catholic priest who serves as associate pastor at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish in south St. Louis County, is both an avid hunter and an experienced angler. Classen is also a newly published author, one so eager to share the myriad ways in which faith has helped his love of the outdoors -- and vice versa -- that he's written a book about the topics.

Classen's book, "Hunting for God, Fishing for the Lord: Encountering the Sacred in the Great Outdoors," should be required reading for anyone who sometimes wonders about life and its meaning. The author has done a good job of articulating personal philosophy as well as outdoors anecdotes, a few fairly hilarious. Of course, what else would you expect from a person so dedicated to archery that he set up his own range on the parish rectory's second floor?

"I shoot through the (guest) room, down the hall, through my bedroom and into the storage attic where the target's been placed," Classen said. "That's a good 20 yards."

A Guardian Angel Story

From Dwight Longenecker:

For the celebration of our Guardian Angels here's a true story

Respect Life Message From Father Benedict

Found at the CFR site, including this interesting note:

During the past few weeks I’ve lived through a part of the terrible drama caused by that decision. A very fine young couple learned from a sonogram that there were difficulties, possibly major difficulties, in the development of their little baby. Without paying any attention to pro-abortion doctors—who are many—they went on with their determination to have the child who is now home with all signs of good health. The parents and family are elated. I also am elated, but more than that I am impressed by the courage and faith of the parents. Would we have known what to do if Pope John Paul II, along with many others, had not clearly condemned the process of abortion?

Father Benedict has a new book out on the virtues that is very interesting and unique. A real page turner:

Part of Ceiling Falls at Marytown Shrine

In Libertyville, IL (National Shrine of St. Maximillian Kolbe).
I've been here many times, beautiful shrine where perpetual adoration takes place around the clock and there always seems to be a good crowd of people praying. This is one of those places you can "sense" God's presence. The heat of the vigil candles burning in the foyer hits you in the face as you walk into the Church, preparing you for you encounter with the Divine.
Thanks to John H. from Kentucky for pointing this out to me, for some reason when I first looked at the story this morning I thought it had happened at another church. Although four people were injured, none were apparently serious. One person who might have taken a direct hit, left just before it fell--the fruit no doubt of her time in adoration. People who pray before the Blessed Sacrament are more able to deal with reality--in this case a stomach ache--perhaps a premonition--that kept her from suffering more seriously.

From the Chicago Tribune:

A group of about 50 women, who were visiting the chapel as thousands of pilgrims do annually, was scheduled to enter the chapel within minutes of the collapse, which occurred around 6:45 p.m.

"I shudder to think what it would have been like on a Sunday morning," said McKinley, the rector and guardian at Marytown, a 12-acre Conventual Franciscan friary and national shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe.

The group of parishioners was preparing for devotion at the chapel, which is the centerpiece of the Marytown complex.

McKinley said a parishioner who had been sitting in a pew where the ceiling section landed had left shortly before the collapse because she had a stomachache and wanted to lie down.

"Good thing she did," he said.

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, the site's main chapel, was modeled after St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of four patriarchal basilicas in Rome. It was built to memorialize the 1926 International Eucharistic Congress, the first held in the U.S.

Quoted by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship

In an article on one of my favorite commentators--Frederick Dale Bruner, who I am happy to read is working on a new commentary on the Gospel of John.

From Frederick Dale Bruner: Moving from text to sermon:

You don’t have to write sermons to appreciate Bruner. Michael Dubruiel, an acquisitions editor for the Catholic publisher Our Sunday Visitor, draws on him
when writing books on practical Catholic living and speaking to Catholic groups
on how to live out their faith.
“Bruner gives such a complete overview of what others have said about a passage—as well as commenting on it himself—that you hardly need another reference book on Matthew,” Dubruiel says. He adds that Bruner leaves readers with “a renewed appreciation for Scripture…and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.”

Thanks to Joan Huyser-Honig for spelling my name right!

One volume of the two-volume series on Matthew by Bruner:

Feast of the Guardian Angels

Yours and mine...

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

That every individual soul has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church, and is,
consequently, not an article of faith; but it
is the "mind of the Church", as St. Jerome expressed it:
"how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has
from his birth an angel
commissioned to guard it." (Comm. in Matt., xviii, lib. II).

The Day of Atonement--Yom Kippur

From St. Louis Today:

No one knows whether it happens with a satisfying "thump," but at sunset Monday, God will close the Book of Life, according to Jewish tradition, and the fate of every Jew will be sealed for another year.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, begins at sunset Sunday and ends at sunset Monday. It is a day dedicated to repentance and forgiveness, the end of the 10-day high holiday season that began with Rosh Hashanah, the festive Jewish New Year. Over those 10 days, Jews worldwide, including the 6,000 in the St. Louis area, seek forgiveness from those they've wronged over the last year, and forgive those who ask it of them.

But Yom Kippur is different. It is the day that Jews will also ask forgiveness for sins they've committed against God. Just before sunset Sunday, Jews will gather for the Kol Nidre prayer, a chant that releases the individual from promises made to God that won't be fulfilled.

The following 25 hours are spent in an intense individual examination of one's life - as it relates to other people, to God, to the Jewish faith and to the prospect of life's finality.

"All our lives we deny we're going to die, but on Yom Kippur we're forced to realize that we're not going to get out of this life alive," said Rabbi Mark L. Shook of Congregation Temple Israel in Creve Coeur. "Yom Kippur makes us think hard about the significance of our lives. What will be different about the world because we've entered and left it?"

Church Music: "Cultural Vandalism"

Scottish composer takes on the banality of modern music in the Catholic Church.

From Scottland on Sunday:

A devout Catholic, MacMillan uses an article in a religious magazine this weekend to confess his despair of the "screaming microphones" and "incompetently strummed guitars and cringe-making, smiley, cheesy foil groups" which fill churches every Sunday.

He reserves particular venom for two well-known modern hymns, 'Bind Us Together, Lord' and 'Make Me a Channel Of Your Peace', the latter having even been recorded to popular acclaim by Irish singer Daniel O'Donnell.

MacMillan says the hymns amount to "cultural vandalism" and that a backlash against such groups is growing, with more church-goers demanding a return to the traditional music which filled churches before reforms of the 1960s.

He declared: "The church has simply aped the secular West's obsession with 'accessibility', 'inclusiveness', 'democracy' and 'anti-elitism'. The effect of this on liturgy has been a triumph of bad taste and banality and an apparent vacating of the sacred spaces of any palpable sense of the presence of God."

Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Although not formally celebrated today, because it is a Sunday.
Therese imagined that in the spiritual life we are all like infants at the foot of the stairs being summoned by our Heavenly Father to climb the heights--which try as we might we cannot do. Finally the Heavenly Father will come down the stairs and pick us up and carry us up the stairs. Which of course is a beautiful child like summary of what the Trinity has done in the incarnation of Jesus.
Are you and I trying to climb the stairs? Is our Faith in Him? Abandon yourself to the God as a child abandons oneself to their parents.
St. Therese, pray for us!

Alabama Plays Gators Like it was 1966

I think the throwback uniforms almost did the Gators in, because in the first half they played like it was 1966. You would have thought that the Crimson Tide was being coached by Bear Bryant, not Mike Shula...but thankfully the time warp ended by half-time.

Pope Asks Faithful to Pray Rosary, for Missions, Iraq and to Follow Example of St. Therese

Whose Feast Day it is, from Asia News Italy:

The pope also cited the patroness of missions, the Carmelite St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who John Paul II proclaimed as Doctor of the Church. “She, who indicated confident abandonment to the love of God as a ‘simple’ way to holiness, helps us to be credible witnesses of the Gospel of charity. Most Holy Mary, Virgin of the Rosary and Queen of missions, lead us all to Christ the Saviour.”