St. John was born at Capistrano, Italy in 1385, the son of a former German knight in that city. He studied law at the University of Perugia and practiced as a lawyer in the courts of Naples. King Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia. During a war with a neighboring town he was betrayed and imprisoned. Upon his release he entered the Franciscan community at Perugia in 1416. He and St. James of the March were fellow students under St. Bernardine of Siena, who inspired him to …
Month: October 2020
If You Set the World Ablaze, You’re Going to Tick People Off
“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” – Jesus
Most people would not smack books out the hands of a cripple at the library. Most people won’t cuss out the girl at McDonalds because they got an apple pie instead of a pumpkin pie. Most people quietly tolerate Facebook posts they disagree with and scroll on, avoiding the social brawl about to happen in the comment section.
Most people want to be known as a “good person.”
Very few of us want to be seen as jerks.
It’s a part of our humanity to avoid conflict and want to be liked by people around us. This instinct helps keep societies stable. Unfortunately, it also makes us poor Christians.
What’s interesting is that Jesus came to the world to rock the boat. He turned everything on its head. So much so, he was crucified for it.
And here’s the crazy part: Jesus wasn’t “nice.”
Nice is a shallow adjective that is easily misinterpreted to be Christian. Christ loves all people, but it’s because of his love that he has to put his foot down. A “nice” person does nice things for their own ego and because they are concerned with how people perceive them.
Christ creates division.
Modern Catholics are very quick to go with the flow. There’s often an expectation of tolerance and niceness when we think about the modern day Catholic. This is not at all the case. We are supposed to love others but if others persist in evil we cannot condone such behavior.
Humans are given Free Will. Ideally, we use our Free Will to choose the good, but in order for it to be a truly Free Will we must be able to choose the evil. If evil is not an option, is our Will free?
If you have never felt left out or at odds with non-believers there’s a very good chance that you are not living out the Catholic faith that Jesus intended. Jesus himself told us that division would happen. Jesus himself lived the Gospel so loudly that he was killed for it. Have you come even close to being killed for your belief in the Gospel?
It doesn’t have to be a literal death; it is more often a social death. A death that involves being unfriended on Facebook or getting called a “prude.”
If friends believe abortion is acceptable, we should love them, but we must show our dissent. We might lose our friends because of it.
As Jesus did, we should be friends with the sinners, “prostitutes”, and “tax collectors” but we also must share the Gospel and urge them to “sin no more” (in the most loving way possible).
To tolerate sin is failing in our Christian Faith. Being Christian has nothing to do with being nice and everything to do with dying for your faith. We are not a faith of subtlety.
Patrick produces YouTube content for young Catholics on Catholic Late Night and Overt TV. He loves using humor to share the Truth of the Catholic faith with anyone who will listen. He resides currently in Chattanooga, TN and is a parishioner at The Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul. Patrick graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville with a degree in Communication Arts and a Minor in Marketing.
St. Pope John Paul II: Saint of the Day for Thursday, October 22, 2020
Karol J. Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometres from Cracow, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died in 1929. His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father, a non-commissioned army officer died in 1941.
He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Upon graduation from Marcin Wadowita high school …
Prayer to St. John Paul II: Prayer of the Day for Thursday, October 22, 2020
Oh, St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing! Bless the church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading it along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young, who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up high again to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth.
May you bless families, bless each family! You warned of SatanÂ?s assault against this …
Let’s Wait…Or Not
If you have lived as long as I have and had a few jobs in your life, perhaps you have worked with people that as soon as the boss walked out the door they let their “hair down.” In other words, they would do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do when he/she was present. Sound familiar? God forbid the boss would come in at a time when there was an enormous amount of goofing off going on. There would be consequences! This is the kind of theme in today’s Gospel of Luke.
How much time do you spend thinking about your mortality? I promise you, the older you get, the more you think about it! (Today is my 75th birthday). Actually, at this stage of my life, I think more about getting closer and closer to God than about when I am going to die.
Secularism has crept into churches all over the world. If you are or were a regular church goer you might have noticed that in many cases attendance has gone down. And I’m talking about before Covid-19. And now it’s getting worse. There is a visible force attempting to destroy Christianity here and around the earth. It shows up in our church big time. Very sad. Some feel that since Christ has not shown up after 2000 years, then perhaps he never will, or worse yet, that he was never really God. I have heard some say that there is no proof that God exists. Some people actually think that God exists simply because they believe he exists. Sorry to those people, God exists whether we believe it or not.
That brings us back to the surprise party. That day that Jesus decides to come back. Remember, it will be like a thief coming in the middle of the night! Malachi says, “Oh, that great and terrible day.” It will be great for believers but terrible for unbelievers. Does it give you chills? It does me! It may be a time to look at our spiritual walk.
- Am I spending more time with the Lord?
For those of you that struggle with silence, that was number one on my list many years ago. When I started college, I would have rather had a bad roommate than none at all. I could not handle silence at all. My wife helped cure me of that problem. Soon after we were married she would get up at 5:00 AM to spend time with the Lord. She was a great role model for me. If you are of a contemplative nature, then sitting before the Blessed Sacrament is like a slice of heaven. Lectio Divina is a wonderful way for you to widen that pathway between you and God. You will be amazed. If you don’t have access to a church or chapel try praying a daily rosary or a divine mercy chaplet or both! Read books on the lives of the saints to see how others overcame great difficulties to become holy.
- Am I helping others in need?
If you are stumped on this one, then see Matthew 25. Jesus gives a great list of those things that you and I can do. It will make him smile. Joy comes with giving! If you are still stumped, ask the Lord in your evening prayer what he wishes you to do. You will get an answer!
Serve with joy!
Deacon Dan Schneider is a retired general manager of industrial distributors. He and his wife Vicki recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They are the parents of eight children and twenty-nine grandchildren. He has a degree in Family Life Education from Spring Arbor University. He was ordained a Permanent Deacon in 2002. He has a passion for working with engaged and married couples and his main ministry has been preparing couples for marriage.
St. Hilarion: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Abbot and disciple of St. Anthony the Great, companion of St. Hesychius. He was born in Tabatha, Palestine, and was educated in Alexandria, Egypt. He stayed with St. Anthony in the desert there before becoming a hermit at Majuma, near Gaza, Israel. In 356, Hilarion returned to St. Anthony in the Egyptian desert and found that his fame had Spread there too. He fled to Sicily to escape notice, but Hesychius traced him there. The two went to Dalmatia, Croatia, and then to Cyprus. Hilarion …
Prayer to Holy Michael the Archangel: Prayer of the Day for Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Holy Michael, the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our safeguard against the wickedness
and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him,
we humbly pray;
and do you,
O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God
cast into hell Satan
and all the evil spirits
who wander through the world
seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
God’s In-Pouring love
“Be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.”
Weddings are wonderful events, celebrations when we somehow are able to set aside the past and hope for the future of a couple with whom we have in some way shared the journey of life.
However…
What would be some reasons why a wedding feast wouldn’t be a joyous celebration?
Think about it for a minute…
I’ll name a few hypothetical reasons why we may not be thoroughly and completely delighted at a wedding feast:
The bride has a more beautiful wedding dress than I did.
The wedding feast is larger than what my spouse and I would be able to have.
I don’t approve of the marriage.
I’m worried about the future of the couple.
I wish I could be that happy in public like the groom. Instead I shrink with fear or shame for some reason I can’t understand.
My marriage or vocational choice has gone through the wringer with sorrows and setbacks. It’s not fair that they have everything going for them.
I have been slighted or hurt or unjustly treated by one of them and hope they get what they deserve.
Whoa. Suddenly the feasting is no longer shining with joy. It is distorted and darkened with jealousy or fear or anger or…
…Or hurt…
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us to be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast. He says they should have their belts done up and their lamps lit, that is to be actively getting ready for his return.
So what are some reasons why we may not be actively, excitedly preparing ourselves for the Lord’s coming?
Here are some hypothetical possibilities…
I’ve lost a child and no matter how much I prayed, God did nothing.
My life hasn’t turned out the way I had hoped.
Others have gotten ahead of me and I resent that I’m not more talented, more positioned for success, more wealthy.
Trauma in my early years has left me struggling to trust, to hope, to love anyone and even God himself. I’ve shut down to protect myself.
I can’t remember the last time I was happy.
My experience of love in my formative years was conditioned on my good behavior or good grades. I never seem good enough for God. I can’t believe he would love me.
I pray but I don’t think God listens to me.
I think that God will come to punish me. I’m not even sure there is a place for me in heaven. I’m still worried about something I did when I was a teenager and if God has forgiven me.
Something similar lies at the root of both of these hypothetical lists.
Hurt.
The wounds we have sustained in life deeply affect us…at the level of the heart. We certainly get absorbed in the thoughts and memories and feelings that swirl within us on a conscious level. Just think of these hypothetical situations and all the drama that they create within a person and in relationships. Our small mind’s antics are just ways to distract us from the utter pain we each carry in some way in our deeper heart, pain from past wounds accumulated over the years.
Friend, I encourage you to hold that hurt and honor that wound. Know that deeper than the wound itself, however, is the spark of God’s in-pouring love that sustains your life on every level. We all have to struggle with the small-minded antics that get played out within us and which drive us then to act in small-minded ways. Hurt does that. The readings today, however, call us to look deeper. To actively seek to hold up the lamp in the dark begging for God to show us his face. To reveal how through all the pain we “in him are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.”
It begins with being aware of what is holding us back, what is small-minded and pain-filled and welcoming both the wound and the healing. As the wound heals, the light is released and the delicious joy of the wedding feast invades our life, pushing away the small-minded narrowness with the amazing discovery of Jesus’ promise: “In truth I tell you, he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them.”
Kathryn James Hermes, FSP, is the author of the newly released title: Reclaim Regret: How God Heals Life’s Disappointments, by Pauline Books and Media. An author and spiritual mentor, she offers spiritual accompaniment for the contemporary Christian’s journey towards spiritual growth and inner healing. She is the director of My Sisters, where people can find spiritual accompaniment from the Daughters of St. Paul on their journey. Website: www.touchingthesunrise.com Public Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/srkathrynhermes/ For monthly spiritual journaling guides, weekly podcasts and over 50 conferences and retreat programs join my Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/srkathryn.
St. Paul of the Cross: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, October 20, 2020
St. Paul of the Cross was born at Ovada in the Republic of Genoa, January 3, 1694. His infancy and youth were spent in great innocence and piety. He was inspired from on high to found a congregation; in an ecstacy he beheld the habit which he and his companions were to wear. After consulting his director, Bishop Gastinara of Alexandria in Piedmont, he reached the conclusion that God wished him to establish a congregation in honor of the Passion of Jesus Christ. On November 22, 1720, the bishop …
Apostle’s Creed (A Prayer of Faith): Prayer of the Day for Tuesday, October 20, 2020
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Creator of Heaven and earth;
I believe in Jesus Christ,
His only Son, our Lord,
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into Heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the …