He's in the House

Today the Catholic Church celebrates The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.  This is the Pope's actual church in Rome.

I was reflecting on the Churches in the world as I thought about the Feast.  Churches are without a doubt some of the most beautiful buildings in the world.  Just a quick Google search will result in churches of various faith groups showing their honor to God in large spires, stained glass, statues and vast halls.  The architecture is amazing, especially when you realize that many of the churches were built 100's of years ago and may have taken a decades to complete.

But those are just buildings.  The most important thing to remember is that the Church is God's house.  In the catholic faith we believe that in the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Jesus.  After communion, the unconsumed hosts are placed in the tabernacle and remain in the church for the next mass.  So the church is not just a building, but a dwelling place for Jesus.  While Jesus lives in the biggest and most famous Catholic Cathedrals, he also lives in the smallest Catholic community Churches.

The other place he lives is within us.  When we receive the body and blood of Christ at the mass our body becomes a small church, a tabernacle for the living God.  At that moment we are truly one with Jesus.  That's why it's important we do what we can to be ready to receive him and make our body a worthy dwelling place for the Lord.

Ways to Pray-Lectio Divina

I struggle with prayer.  I just don't feel like I'm good at it.  I'm always trying to improve on everything I do, and there can be nothing more important to get good at than talking to God.

So over the next few days I am planning on reflecting on different ways to pray.

Today I am looking at Lectio Divina.  Its the practice of reading and contemplating on a scripture passage.  As I understand there are 4 steps.

1. Lectio-Read a passage.
2. Meditatio-Reflect and imagine being part of the passage.
3. Oratio-Respond to the passage by praising God, asking for grace or healing.
4. Comtemplatio-Contemplation on the passage trying to experience the text as a reality.

Seems simple enough.  I feel the Holy Spirit lives in the scripture.  So evoking a bible passage will help me use the Holy Spirit as a conduit to improving my prayer.

So I'm committing to 5 days of Lectio Divina.  Maybe it will work for me...maybe not.  But I know I can always have it in my prayer toolbox.

Would You Risk 99 for the Sake of 1? Jesus Would.

Today's Gospel includes one of the parables that I always find hard to understand in how we value things today.  Luke says that when questioned about eating with sinners Jesus says, "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?"

Whenever I hear this question I always find myself thinking I don't understand how it makes sense to risk 99 of anything to try to save one.

But not all sheep are equal.  Jesus says "There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance."

And that's what I need to remember, Jesus spent time with sinners because their value in becoming part of his flock is more important than someone already faithful to God.  Getting someone to realize their faith and to get on the path to Heaven is worth celebrating.

And its up to us, hopefully part of the flock of 99 righteous sheep give the time and effort to bring back the lost sheep out there.  Spread the Word of God to family and friends who may have wondered off.  That's what Jesus would do. 

 

Election Day and A Our Tattered Nation

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself will not stand." Matthew 12:25

How to Become a Saint: Step 3-The Secret Weapon

When I was in the Navy I had a security clearance.  I was allowed to know things that the nation felt was important to keep a secret for the security of the country.

So, with this post I'm, giving you a security clearance.  I'm going to tell you the big secret in how to become a Saint.  Make sure you are alone in a quiet place so no one else can hear this covert fact, the secret weapon to Sainthood.

Here it is. You are already a Saint.

Remember, we were all created in God's image.  We were not created to be Gods ourselves but God wanted us to be his companions.  We were created in God's image to be with Him in heaven.  So how is that not being born a Saint?

This begs the question why isn't everyone a Saint then?  Here is where we tend to go wrong.  In order to enter heaven and receive our Sainthood, we need to give our lives to Jesus and follow his will.  Jesus died for our sins, but he was also an example of how to live our life as humans.  He continues to look out for us and lead us on the pathway to heaven.

But we tend to forget this fact and lead lives away from God.  Even as believers we might forget Jesus during the week and try to make up for it by an hour on the weekend at Church.  We might ignore the Holy Spirit trying to warn us when we veer of the right path.  Through history, our Mother, The Virgin Mary, has come back down in visions to remind us of the glory we are entitled to.  But we choose to ignore her.

Our thoughts and actions take the glorified soul we were created as by God and turn it into less than a Saint.

But it's not too late.  Live close to God.  Follow the example of Jesus.  Hear the Holy Spirit warn us when we go off track.  Follow the lessons of Mary at Fatima and other motherly visions.

Do this and we can again become the Saints that God intended us to be, the Saints we already were before we made mistakes and jeopardized our Soul.  We were born as Saints.  Sainthood is our destiny.  We just need to not botch it up.  Jesus is infallible, so by faithfully living through Him it is impossible to mess up our path to Sainthood.  You just need to do it.

How to Become a Saint: Step 2-Your Sainthood Team

On All Saints Day I was watching some various homilies and thoughts on the day from the experts on faith and Catholicism.  One of my personal favorites is Father Mike Schmitz.  His 2023 homily really struck a chord with me.  I will summarize parts of the sermon here, but I encourage you to get it straight from the source by clicking this link.

Father Mike likened becoming a Saint to an Ironman Triathlon.  Immediately, I was interested as 20 years ago I finished the 2.4mi swim, the 112mi bike and the 26.2mi marathon run and heard those words "You are an Ironman."  The rules have eased over the last 15 years ago, but it used to be very strict.  An Ironman race started at 7am with thousands of people starting the swim together and in order to be considered a finished you needed to cross the finish line by midnight.  That gives 17 hours to finish the race and be an official finisher.

When it gets close to that midnight time limit it became tradition for people who had already finished the race to return to the finish line to cheer on the final racers for the day.  Father Mike talks specifically about an Ironman Canada, but I've seen and heard of this happening numerous times late in Ironman Triathlons.  With the stands at the finish line full in the last half hour of the race, the announcer says he hears about a racer who is struggling, 2 miles down the road, but has only 15 minutes to finish the race to be an official Ironman.  Running 2 miles in 15 minutes is not impossible, but remember this a person who has been going non-stop since 7am.  So finishing the race is definitely not a certainly.  So  people then leave the stands to go down the road to encourage and run with this individual.  Over the next few minutes more people go to meet the racer and encourage him.  They want this person to experience of becoming an Ironman like them. 

When the racer gets near the finish line and makes that final turn they have a crowd of Ironman behind them helping and encouraging them to finish the race so they can hear the words, "You are an Ironman."

So how does this relate to Sainthood?  Like becoming and Ironman becoming a Saint is a race.  The racecourse is life.  And like the Ironman we have a team behind us, helping and encouraging us to finish the race.  All the Saints who have already finished before us are there running with us to the finish line.  We are never trying to run the race of life alone.  Pushing us to the finish are St. John, St. Joan of Arc, St. Pope John Paul, and all the Saints.  Your own Sainthood team.  The Saints want you to experience becoming a Saint like them.

We just need to follow our team's encouragement to get to the finish line, with the crowd of Saints behind us, where St. Peter says the words, "You are a Saint."

 

How to Become a Saint: Step 1-Finding Flaws

This year in my goal to better understand and become more connected to my faith, I have completed a couple of cycles of the Marian Consecration.  It is a way of completely devoting one's life to the Virgin Mary and offering oneself to Jesus through Mary.

As I understand the idea for committing to Mary as a way to reach Jesus was first started in the 1600's by French Priest St. Louis de Montfort.  More recently it was reestablished by St. Maximilian Kolbe (who should be the patron Saint of Beard-Growing) in the 1920's and 1930's.  In either case there is a series of 33 days of daily reflection before praying to commit to Mary.

In the case of St. Kolbe's consecration the daily prayers always included "...become a Saint.  A great Saint."

This was always uncomfortable to me to say.  I'm not a Saint.  I'm definitely not a great Saint.  I have faults.  I have made mistakes.  I have spent parts of my life distanced from Jesus.  I can't be a Saint.

Or can I?

I think the first step to becoming a Saint is the realization that even the Saints we admire probably had faults.  St. Paul was a Roman who persecuted Jews and early Christians.  Before his conversion St. Augustine pursued a life paganism and had a child out of wedlock.  St. Pelagia and St. Mary of Egypt were well known seductresses.  

More recently, in the 1800's, Bl. Bartolo Longo described himself as an atheist and  "Satanic Priest."  During his beatification St. Pope John Paul called Fr. Longo the "Apostle of the Rosary."  That's quite a turn around.

It seems like almost every Saint has a story of being distanced from God and a conversion that led them to return to their faith.

So maybe I can be a Saint.  Maybe we all can.

Being a Saint is not about being flawless.  Becoming a Saint is about working on flaws and using them to become perfect.

I want to end on this thought from one of those flawed individuals who became a Saint and a was named a Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine:

"There is no Saint without a past, no sinner without a future."

Let us realize our flaws and figure out how to use them to become Saints, great Saints.