Gaudate! :D

Happy 3rd week of Advent, the week of joy!

Here are some great quotes about joy from some awesome people, the saints (and blessed)! I think it's safe to say they're pretty much experts on joy.

We are not saints yet, but we, too, should beware. Uprightness and virtue do have their rewards, in self-respect and in respect from others, and it is easy to find ourselves aiming for the result rather than the cause. Let us aim for joy, rather than respectability. Let us make fools of ourselves from time to time, and thus see ourselves, for a moment, as the all-wise God sees us.  - St. Philip Neri

 "We are at Jesus’ disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that’s all right, everything is all right. We must say, 'I belong to you. You can do whatever you like.'  And this is our strength. This is the joy of the Lord." -- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Also by Blessed Mother Teresa: Joy is a net of love by which we catch souls.

For one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more forever. - St. Therese of Lisieux

And of course, I can't blog about joy without mentioning Fr. Baker's old homily on joy and its definition, which I think he might be drawing from St. John, but I'm not really sure (I can't find a clear source anywhere and I probably shouldn't call Fr. Baker just to ask him who he quoted in a homily like 4 years ago). Anyway, Fr. Baker gave an excellent homily once where he said that joy is not mere happiness. It is the state of being with one's beloved. Therefore, ultimate joy is found in being with Christ, not in any emotional high. The closer we get to Christ, the closer we get to the fountain of all true joy. Thus, we often feel most at peace not when we have gotten everything we ever wanted but when we have given away everything we have. (I don't think that last part was in the homily - I'm just extrapolating).

I'm praying for you! May you have lasting peace and joy, and may your joy catch many souls for Christ!

:) 

"We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what is falling apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way."
— St. Francis of Assisi

I'm praying for you!

:)

A poem by Fulton Sheen

I slipped His fingers
I escaped His feet. 
I ran and hid for Him I feared to meet. 
One day I passed Him, fettered on a tree. 
He turned His head and looked and beckoned me. 
Neither by seed or strength could He prevail. 
Each hand and foot was pinioned by a nail. 
He could not run nor clasped me if He tried,
but with His eyes, He bade me reach His side.  
‘For pity sake’, thought I, ‘I’ll set you free.’ 
‘Ney, take this Cross,’ said He, ‘and follow Me.’ 
And so did I follow Him who could not move,
an uncaught captive in the hands of Love.

- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

I'm praying for you!

:)

Wherever there is love, there is a trinity: a lover, a beloved, and a fountain of love.
— St. Augustine of Hippo

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Only the soul who wants it will be damned, for God condemns no one."
— St. Faustina

I'm praying for you!

:)

St. Augustine, who I'm totally naming a kid after

"But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in him but in myself and his other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error."
— St.Augustine

I'm praying for you!

:)

More Fulton Sheen because he's the best

"Do not stunt your spiritual life by looking always for your faults. Think of God’s love. Never despair! Not until God ceases to be infinitely good and you begin to be infinitely wicked have you a right to be hopeless."
— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen 

I'm praying for you!

:)

I remembered the homily from last night

So last night, the homily I heard was about particular judgment of each soul and preparing ourselves for it, so the priest outlined three lies that Satan would like us to believe.

1. That we still have plenty of time to repent, when in reality we could die at any moment. Our hearts become harder the more we sin and we should run to seek forgiveness as soon as possible.

2. That it is too great a sin for God's mercy. This is really a form of pride. Nothing we can do is unforgivable.

3. That it is too small a sin to concern God, when really God is offended by every sin, no matter how small it may seem to us, so we need to repent of all of them and turn away from all sin.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Random verse from Wisdom

And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; And you gave your sons good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins. (Wisdom 12:19)

I highly recommend reading this entire chapter and the one before it. And the one before that. Meh, better just read the whole book.

I'm praying for you!

:)

"And so praying to Christ for your friend, and longing to be heard by Christ for your friend's sake, you reach out with devotion and desire to Christ himself.   And suddenly and insensibly, as though touched by the gentleness of Christ close at hand, you begin to taste how sweet he is and to feel how lovely he is.   Thus from that holy love with which you embrace your friend, you rise to that love by which you embrace Christ." - St. Aelred of Rievaulx

I'm praying for you!

:)

As the dog returns to his vomit, so the fool repeats his folly. (Proverbs 26:11)

Favorite verse so far.

I'm praying for you!

:)

God has glory in what he conceals, kings have glory in what they fathom. (Proverbs 25:2)

I don't fully understand this verse, so I figured I'd share it with you.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Query regarding Proverbs

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a wish fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

I'm not really sure exactly what this verse means. Does it mean waiting for something makes the heart sick, or that making someone else wait for something makes the heart sick, or that failing to hope makes the heart sick?

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Before the sin, Satan assures us that it is of no consequence; after the sin, he persuades us that it is unforgivable."
— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

I'm praying for you!

:)

"There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection."
— Pope St. Gregory the Great

I'm praying for you!

:)

"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?"
— C.S Lewis

I'm praying for you!

:)

"A friend is more to be longed for than the light; I speak of a genuine one. And wonder not: for it were better for us that the sun should be extinguished, than that we should be deprived of friends; better to live in darkness, than to be without friends."
— St. John Chrysostom

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done."
— C.S. Lewis

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy."
— Thomas Merton

I'm praying for you!

:)

Psalm 34

The LORD redeems loyal servants; no one is condemned whose refuge is God. (Psalms 34:23)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Psalm 26

This is a verse from the psalm I read tonight.

Your love is before my eyes; I walk guided by your faithfulness. (Psalms 26:3)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Individualist religious theories there have always been, even among Christians. They have never been able to carry out the full logic of their individualist theory because their nature as human beings stood too solidly in their way. Something in religion they have had to get from other men.

So the Bible-Christian despising priesthood and minimizing Church has yet had to fall back upon the Bible; and the Bible, although it is given to us by God, is given through men, the men who under His inspiration wrote it.

A religion wherein the soul finds and maintains a relation with God with no dependence upon men is impossible, and what makes it impossible is the nature God gave man. The only question, then, is whether religion shall do its very uttermost to elude the social element in man’s nature, accepting only so much as it can by no possibility avoid; or whether it shall wholly accept and glory in the social element as something given by God, something therefore to be used to the uttermost in religion as in the rest of man’s life. In giving man the religion of the Kingdom, God showed what His own answer is.

—	Frank J. Sheed, Theology and Sanity

I'm praying for you!

:)

5th Sorrowful Mystery: The Crucifixion

Hello! So I know I've been super absent from this blog for a really long time, but I decided to post today and realized I never finished my meditations on the Sorrowful Mysteries. So here is my meditation on the Crucifixion:

From The Passion of Christ

So often I forget the full gruesomeness of the Crucifixion. Most crucifixes hanging in churches or homes look more the picture below than the scene above.

 On these crucifixes, Jesus looks like he's just chilling on the cross. His face doesn't typically look full of anguish. He's not covered in blood. And regardless of whether it's a crucifix or a scene in the movie, we depict Jesus wearing some type of garment on the cross.

I'm not saying that every crucifix should be bloody or that we should have naked figures of Jesus hanging in our homes and churches, but I think it's useful to at least occasionally confront ourselves with the truth of the Crucifixion.

It was bloody and gruesome. Jesus hung naked and bloody and bruised on the cross, his body contorting as he struggled to breathe. Because He is human as well as divine, and His human physiology would have continued to struggle to survive even if He had given up on breathing. People jeered at Him. We jeered at Him. We nailed God to a cross and laughed as He struggled for air.

On our part, it is the worst crime in the history of the universe.

And on His part, it is the greatest act of love in the history of the universe.

I've always marveled at the fact that Christ basically used our sin in order to redeem us. He didn't come down to Earth and say, "Look, now I've humbled myself and I'm going to kill myself as a sacrifice for all of you." Instead, He allowed us to kill Him. He came down to Earth determined to let us do exactly what He knew we would do - brutally murder Him. And He used that to grant us redemption.

Sometimes, I feel tricked. We sin, we nail God to a tree. We've killed God. But the problem (or rather, the opposite of a problem) is that God dying broke death. Death could never hold Him. And by sacrificing Himself willingly, He breaks sin's power over us.

Trying to think about this too much makes my head hurt. He used our sins, accepted our brutal murder of Him, and in so doing, destroyed the power of sin, broke death, and offered us redemption.

But I love the image of death reaching out to swallow up God, death rejoicing in a feast so great, and then death shattering from the weight of devouring infinite life.

Infinite love becomes sin, and sin breaks.

Infinite life dies, and death breaks.

If you have any thoughts on this, let me know.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Father Baker gave a great homily last night for Corpus Christi. He said one of the seminarians working at Totus Tuus told a group of kids that Jesus was in the tabernacle and a little 5 year old girl got super excited and said, "What?! Jesus is in there?!"

May we all have the enthusiasm for Christ that comes so naturally to young children.

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm BAAAAAAACK

Hi, Josh!

I'm back, and I'm so sorry for my absence! I'm so excited that you will be ordained a deacon a year from today! :)

As my inaugural post for the rest of your journey towards the priesthood, I want to share a quote by Frank Sheed from his book Theology and Sanity. It's basically my favorite thing that I've ever read.

"I can recall with great clarity the moment when for the first time I heard myself say that God had made me and all things of nothing. I had known it, like any other Catholic, from childhood; but I had never properly taken it in. I had said it a thousand times but I had never heard what I was saying. In the sudden realization of this particular truth there is something peculiarly shattering. There are truths of religion immeasurably mightier in themselves, and the realization of any one of them might well make the heart miss a beat. But this one goes to the very essence of what we are, and goes there almost with the effect of annihilation. Indeed it is a kind of annihilation. God used no material in our making; we are made of nothing. At least self-sufficiency is annihilated, and all those customary ways that the illusion of self-sufficiency has made for us. The first effect of realizing that one is made of nothing is a kind of panic-stricken insecurity. One looks round for some more stable thing to clutch, and in this matter none of the beings of our experience are any more stable than we, for at the origin of them all is the same truth; all are made of nothing. But the panic and the insecurity are merely instinctual and transient. A mental habit has been annihilated, but the way toward a sounder mental habit is at least clear.  For although we are made of nothing, we are made into something, and since what we are made of does not account for us, we are forced to a more intense concentration upon the God we are made by."

If you have not read this book, I highly recommend reading it :) And if you ever want to borrow it, let me know!

I'm praying for you!

:)

- C.S.Lewis

I'm praying for you!

:)