Oh Glorious Morn!

Arise, O Sleeper! The day of your salvation is here!

Happy Easter my friends. Today is the day of Resurrection, the beginning of the great season to celebrate our salvation (it lasts 50 days, so keep celebrating!) !

Over at the youth page for Lighthouse Catholic Youth I wrote some thoughts on why Easter is so dang important to us Catholics. You can find that here:  An Open Egg
Check it out and let me know what you think!

What a Crazy World

It's Holy Week-you know, the most important week in the whole year and all-but most of our attention (when I say 'our' I mean the average Catholic who is living in a world somewhat connected to social media and/or the rest of the world in some way) has been directed somewhere else.

Everywhere I look I see arguments, debates, hatred, anger, and frustration-not to mention a whole bunch of confusion.

I've kept my moth shut, not because I don't have an opinion, but because, especially in this holy week, I figure there are more important things to think about. And, I think, there are better ways to spend my time this week than simply debating on social media.

Now, don't get me wrong-discussions on social media can probably be very good, but most of the time it seems they aren't helping anyone.

What the world needs from each of us is not simply another witty way to state something-as funny and awesome as we might be-but the world needs hearts converted to the Lord.

The world needs us to spend time every single day in prayer, most specifically face-to-face with the Lord in the Eucharist.

The world needs us to educate ourselves-not simply through memes or short blurbs on social media, but through actual reading of the Word of God and of those who have explained it, and most importantly through an encounter with the Person of Truth, Jesus Christ.

The world needs us to truly encounter people-not simply angrily spew our copied-and-pasted arguments, but to sit down face-to-face and listen, have dialogue, and maybe in the process encounter a person not just an idea.

The world needs us to love our neighbor, not just spew information at our twitter followers.

The world needs saints-for this is what is going to change things-hearts on fire for the world, letting His Truth be known in love and compassion, not simply in words.

What we need most is not simply a knowledge of facts, but an encounter with Truth, to let this Truth who is a person to be what purifies and clothes us.

Pope Benedict XVI once said: "The truth is the bath that purifies them; the truth is the robe and the anointing they need." This truth, this anointing, are only possible through a personal relationship with Truth Himself-allowing us to be saints, living in relationship with the Father here and now.

May each of our experiences of Holy Week not be filled with anger but with a purifying encounter with Love Himself, Love poured out on the cross for each one of us.

Holy Week

I'm currently reading Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's book Jesus of Nazareth--Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection and it's wonderful, so I thought I'd share an excerpt:

We must let ourselves be immersed in the Lord's mercy, then our 'hearts', too, will discover the right path. The 'new commandment' is not simply a new and higher demand, it is linked to the newness of Jesus Christ--to growing immersion in him...To be a Christian is primarily a gift, which then unfolds in the dynamic of living and acting in and around the gift.

 Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week (2011, Ignatius Press), p.65

In Holy Week, then, these words have shaped my focus. My goal for this week is to better receive the Lord's gift of Himself, and in this receiving to journey with the person of Jesus, being further immersed into Him in order to know His mercy and let Him show my heart His truth and His love. 

Image from OSV 

For some more good stuff on Holy Week and entering into it, go check out a great post on Lighthouse Catholic Youth from Ben Fleser titled: Light at the End of the Tunnel: Preparing for Holy Week . 

Because the world needs to see beauty

Easter is coming, Palm Sunday is tomorrow.

It's 2013, so now when we see something cool or beautiful, we take a picture and post it with hashtags.

Pope Francis, speaking to journalists, reminded us of the importance to capture what is good, true, & beautiful.

Combine those things, along with some really good youth ministers, and what do you get? An awesome project called #CaptureEaster. Go to this link right here: #CaptureEaster to learn more, and then start taking pictures of the goodness, truth, and beauty you see in the world around you.

“We do not want merely to see beauty... we want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” --C.S. Lewis

Let's help one another on this process to be united with beauty by showing God's presence this week as we 

#CaptureEaster.

Why I Really Need the Church

I've been writing a lot lately, but yesterday I read an article that got me thinking. The article, which can be found here-link to the article-is an article which I think is very good but which is lacking something. Take some time to read it, because realistically anything I say after this point won't make sense if you don't.

In other news, this blog goes on longer than I usually like to write. Hopefully it keeps you entertained all the way through.

Lillian Daniel, the author of this article, makes a very good point-I believe-in critiquing the view of Marcus Mumford and many like him (see, for example, Jefferson Bethke, of Why I hate religion but love Jesus fame) that they want to follow Christ without being labeled Christians. Being Christian, they say, has led to wars, hatred, and legalism; or, in Marcus' case it puts you in a culture which he doesn't want to be a part of. Following Christ, they argue, leads to peace, love, and freedom.

Now I'm not going to dispute the simple argument of the negative things the Church has done as spoken of by someone like Jefferson, because others have done it better (this is a good place to start, and to be honest end, for that discussion-The Smackdown from Bad Catholic).  I'm not going to continue that discussion, but rather discuss the point of Mumford (by the way, I love his music, this is not an indictment of that) and his idea of the Christian culture, by pointing him to one culture which is not perfect, but I believe is where the true answer to his question lies.

In many ways this article is good, but I think it falls short in that the community that she is encouraging others to join tends to fall into that same narcissistic idea that loving Jesus but not religion does-you basically make the rules yourself. Let me explain; the current state of Christianity in today's culture is that there is an almost uncountable number of Protestant denominations (How Many Protestant Denominations are There) and that it is growing each day. This number, along with the number of people who claim to follow Jesus but do not identify with any particular denomination or religion shows that things are in disarray. Christ prayed that "they all may be one" (John 17:21) and yet what we see today is anything but that.

Listen, I don't want to argue here as much about Catholicism vs. Protestantism on matters of doctrine particularly, but the reality is that doctrine influences the way that faith is lived out, and so it is unavoidable. What I want to point to with this discussion is my observation that the number of people who start their own denomination, switch from one to another, or simply leave the mainstream culture of Christianity shows a simple fact-this whole being Christian thing is really hard to do on your own.

What this article gets right is that we need community, we need the brokenness of our brothers and our sisters because without their brokenness we end up worshiping ourselves instead of Christ.

What the article gets wrong, I believe, is where this community is found.

In my experience, many Christians of all denominations have a passion and a love for the person of Jesus Christ, and they desire to seek Him with the guiding help of others--and this seeking leads to a jump from this denomination to that, from this Pastor to that one, from this theological school to that. All this shows me is that when you follow a doctrine that says all you need to know is contained in a Book which has the Word of God delivered through all different kinds of letters, writings, stories, parables, and metaphors, it is really hard to figure out what it all means.

Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) comes from a wonderful love for the Word of God transcribed in Scripture and passed down for 2,000 years to us today. What Sola Scriptura misses, however, is how to understand what is really being said in that Book, because in practice it's not that easy to figure out. The greatest evidence for this (or at least good evidence which I would like to point out because it's on my mind) is the daily splintering of Christians into more and more denominations, more and more groups, more and more people turning away from their brothers and sisters in order to try and follow Christ on their own.

And this, my dear friends, is why I love the Church. The Catholic Church, the Church which has continued since the death of Christ in an unbroken chain (Here's your Popes), a Church which has faced schism and heresy and scandal and sin and come through on the other side thanks only to the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This Church isn't here today on the merits of its people or its leaders, because we all know if that was the case it would have been gone very early, but it is here on the merits of the God who created it when He was man in the person of Jesus Christ.

For me, I need this Church. I  need a Mother who can calm me, shut me up, and hand me a tradition of 2,000 years of sinful people working together through the grace of a God who is so passionately in love with His people that he doesn't leave but rather He continues to work through our sinfulness, our brokenness, our stupidity, and our insanity to hand down the Tradition and teaching that He gave us when He was here on earth to die for us.

I think this Church is the only correct response to Marcus and Jefferson and the like: you are right to say that none of those 33,000+ denominations are the best way to foster a personal relationship with Christ; for that, you need to go back to the one He started when He handed the keys to Peter (Matthew 1:18-19). This is a Church which continues to try-through the brokenness of its people-to point each and every person back to the God who gives each of us new life through His death & Resurrection.

As a final disclaimer, I want to make sure it is clear that this wasn't written to hate on other denominations. Rather, I hoped to explain one of the many reasons I love my Church so much and to express my hope that others can find their way home to Her, our Mother. I wrote to explain why I need the Church, and maybe in the process remind some others of the same thing.

St. Joseph, Husband of Mary

So, as most of you know, today is a wonderful solemnity in the Church, the Feast of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary. I am quite sure that I don't know anything about St. Joseph that whoever is reading this doesn't already know, and so I will keep this post short, telling simply about my personal relationship with this great saint and how he has taught me so much.

When I showed up at Franciscan University, I quickly joined a household (think:: fraternity that prays together a lot) called Lion of Judah. The patron of this household is St. Joseph, and thus I began what I guess you could call a relationship with this great saint.

Over four years in household, I slowly but surely learned of the great power of this man, this intercessor, this Patron. Not only is St. Joseph our Patron, but he is the patron of the universal Church since he is the one who was tasked with the great challenge of being the husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, helping Mary to raise their Son as a man, dedicated to His work and to the Jewish faith.

What strikes me about the story of St. Joseph is the profound humility that his task must have taken. We don't know much, but we know from Scripture and Tradition that St. Joseph was a very good, holy man whom Jesus respected very much and was probably very close to. To be a man-a normal, sinful man-tasked with being the head of a household containing the sinless Mother of God and God Himself must have been a daunting, and yet we know that Joseph listened to Lord and accepted this task with humility and love.

For me, this became the crux of what Joseph could show me, this humility and submission to the will of God.  He shows what we are called to do-from the mundane to the extreme, we are to submit to His will, and Joseph is a great and necessary Patron to have for this task.

My time at Franciscan, and specifically my time in the Lion of Judah Household, taught me so much about being a man. The time we spent around one another allowed us to challenge each other to grow in virtue and holiness, learning how to submit to the will of God and do all things not for ourselves but for Him and His glory. I had great examples in this, but most of all, I think, the intercession and patronage of St. Joseph is what taught each of us what this truly looks like.

So, happy feast day--especially to you, LOJ.

St. Joseph, pray for us! 

Come, Holy Spirit

In the midst of constantly thinking about the Pope, life has continued, and I would like to share about an experience I had yesterday that I was very moved by.

As a part of a team planning an upcoming retreat, I had a day of prayer and reflection yesterday. We traveled to a small retreat center, and began our time together with daytime prayer, praise & worship, and silence all in front of our Lord exposed in Eucharistic Adoration.

This was a beautiful experience, as it always is, but where we were yesterday added a wonderful element to this experience. The retreat center we were in was the place that the Catholic Charismatic Renewal began in 1967.

For those of you unfamiliar with how this began, students and faculty from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh had chosen to take a retreat one weekend (Feb 17-19), and came to this location to pray for a renewal of the Lord's work in their hearts and in their lives. While on this retreat, the Holy Spirit acted in a very powerful way-the people experienced His power in a very real way, including receiving gifts such as resting in the Spirit and receiving the gift of tongues, among other things.

This charismatic renewal, which began that weekend, has since allowed many people to experience the Holy Spirit in a way that hadn't been experienced in the Church since the early days. In praying for a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, people across the globe have been able to renew their love for our Lord, their love for the Sacraments, and their commitment to following Christ in their lives.

As we prayed in this room, the power of the Holy Spirit was made known to me in a way that I have known Him before, but still it was very new. It wasn't anything major, anything over the top, any manifestation of the Holy Spirit that you could see, but I knew He was real; we all knew the Lord was present, and each of us heard our God's voice in a very special way.

No matter what your experience of the charismatic renewal, I hope that if you are reading this you know of the grace and continued love of our God manifest in today's world. Whether you experience it in personal prayer, as we did, or through the Sacraments, or through seeing our Lord's providence in choosing a new Pope, you can know that He is real and He is alive in our world.

May the Holy Spirit inspire and enlighten each of our hearts today.

Pope Francis

Among the craziness of all of the things said about our new Pope, I have found some wonderful articles and stories about the man.

That picture above is him riding the bus with the other cardinals instead of taking a luxury vehicle. 

First, here is a wonderful video from Catholic Vote which shows the process of conclave the last two days through the election of the Pope. It's basically 2 minutes of pure awesome: The Election of Pope Francis.

Next, we can get a little taste of Pope Francis-funny, light-hearted, and humble. Here is an article quoting Cardinal Timothy Dolan talking about the experience of the first evening with the new Pope: "I hope God forgives you" .

Speaking of Cardinal Dolan, a well-loved (for very good reason) Cardinal who serves as the Archbishop of New York, here are his thoughts on his experience of this conclave: Viva il Papa Francesco!

As for an understanding of what it means to have a Jesuit as a Pope, here is Fr. James Martin, S.J. of The Colbert Report fame, among many other places, explaining the experience of a Jesuit having one of his brother priests chosen as Pope: Fr. James: "My Take" .

The best article I have read, as is usually the case these days, came from George Weigel. Weigel is known most for his biography on the late John Paul II, and continues to write wonderful work explaining the dynamics of the Church in the modern world, and this look at Pope Francis and the task ahead of him is no exception: The First American Pope .

The first 24 hours must be crazy for a Pope; let's see how he spent his! Doing it his way

Finally, if you want to get a feel for someone, why not read their own thoughts. And so, here is the translation of Pope Francis' homily from his first public Mass as Pope today. (by the way, it's awesome-worth your read. And plus, it's short). Pope Francis' First Homily .

Edit: Here is another article I forgot to add! Fr. Dwight Longenecker talks about Pope Francis' visit to the basilica church in Rome called St. Mary Major this morning, and particularly his prayer at the tomb of Pope St. Pius V: Why did Pope Francis go to St. Mary Major?

As time goes on, I know that we will simply learn more and more about this man, but from what we have seen so far, the Church is in great hands. And, well, what else did we expect? She has been around 2,000 years for a reason. Praise God for His care and for our new Shepherd.

By the way: any other articles I should add?



UPDATE: [[4/18, 2PM]] -- The Vatican has given us the official announcement of the Pope's motto and coat of arms! You can see that here: Miserando atque eligendo and you can read where the USCCB explains more about his coat of arms and his ring here: Pope Francis' Ring and Pallium

In the Pope's first Angelus address on Sunday, he delivered some very profound words on Mercy. They are worth reading, and the English text can be found here: Pope Francis' First Angelus Address

Here you can see some video with translations of Pope Francis' comments on the priesthood and the Eucharist: Pope Francis on the Priesthood and the Eucharist

This one is just a comical story about an honest doorman answering a phone at the Jesuit motherhouse and not believing the man on the other end who said he was the Pope-but he really was!: Jesuit doorman surprised by Pope's phone call

One more article here is the reflections of Mark Hart, from Lifeteen; he takes the text of the Pope's first homily and breaks it up with some reflections on what the Pope is challenging us to do: Our New Pope: Humble Yet Powerful .

Habemus Papam!

I left a meeting today, fully aware that I was going to still be in the car when we saw smoke. I assumed it'd be black, and so I took the time to go to Dunkin Donuts because I wouldn't make it back anyway.

But, just in case, I streamed EWTN on my phone to listen and wait. Then, a few minutes after 2, I heard them say smoke. I was at a stoplight (I promise) and so I watched the smoke. They said it was black, I could see it was white. I started driving, and they figured it out.

I yelled, I freaked out. I cried. I yelled some more. I didn't know what to do.

When I got back to work, I watched with the little kids from the school who I watch once a week after school as they brought him out, they announced a new Pope. I didn't know him, but then we saw him for the first time, and we listened.

Needless to say, I was blown away. A few things stuck out to me today:

This man is amazingly humble.

The time for a massive crowd in Rome to silently pray for our new shepherd was one of the most profound things I've ever experienced.

The Church is alive, She is doing just fine.

I've never been happier to be Catholic.


Pope Francis. It couldn't be more perfect. A humble leader called to rebuild the Church. We have him. We trust in his guidance, and the wisdom of the Spirit.

The Church lives on with the grace and strength of our Lord. We push forward to evangelize the whole Lord through our new humble leader. The world thought we'd pick a strong CEO. Instead we picked a humble man who loves the Lord so deeply that you can't not notice it.

I can't wait to let this man lead our Church through the Holy Spirit. Praise God.

AMDG

A Beauty Ever Ancient, Ever New

Sitting today and watching the Cardinals process from the Pauline Chapel to the Sistine, listening to them sing the Litany of the Saints, hearing the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, listening to the Cardinals take the oath together and then watching them do it individually, finally seeing the doors closed as they begin this holy and astonishingly important process today was all so surreal. It was moving. Most of all, I think, it was a powerful image of exactly what it is we say we believe when we profess faith in the creed.

This ceremony, so ancient and yet ever-new, like our faith, is not done because the Church is stuck somewhere in the past, but it is done because She is guiding us forward with the steady hand of truth and love. Our creed professes a faith laid out in the 4th Century which did not stay there but has lived on and guided the Church and Her people ever since, and will continue to until the end of time.

When the Cardinals say these timeless prayers, when the door to the Sistine Chapel is locked from the media, it is not because they can't figure out how to integrate into 2013, but because the Church and Her leaders know that what is happening here is not simply an election in 2013 but a timeless action of God's Bride on Earth, the Church.

And so we wait. We are not scared, we are not worried. We don't doubt the presence of the Holy Spirit or the wisdom of the Cardinals. We know they are men, but that they are guided by the One who leads and guards the Church every day. Knowing this, we are assured that when we see white smoke and hear those amazing words "Habemus Papam" we will move forward in the Grace of God and the Church will continue to live and thrive under the leadership of the new "Servant of the Servants of God."

Until then, we simply pray, trusting in God's providence and His care. Here is the prayer they prayed today, let us pray with them.

Deus, qui, pastor aeternus, gregem tuum assidua custodia  gubernas, eum immense tua pietate concedes Ecclesiae pastorem, qui tibi sanctitate placeat, et vigili nobis sollicitudine prosit. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.Amen

O God, eternal shepherd, Who govern your flock with unfailing care, Grant in your boundless fatherly love a pastor for your Church who will please you by his holiness and to us show watchful care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and  ever.Amen.

The Need for Separation

I've written this post twice now and edited it a bunch of times to try and make it sound right. I'm not sure I can get my thoughts out correctly, but I will do my best-feel free to critique or disagree.

This explosion of thoughts from my mind is probably a long time coming, as I have often thought about the need for a discussion of an idea which seems so popular in modern times that it has become an ideal in many different circles, for Christians as well as many others, sometimes explicitly and other times implicitly.

I most recently encountered this idea when I came across a video of Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar and priest for whom I have much respect, but whose idea about the way that we experience the Holy Spirit made me pause. When he explained the Spirit he called Him a consciousness, a consciousness which is inside of man, and everyone simply plugs into and experiences, making that person more of who they are meant to be by going deeper into their own consciousness.

Now, I need to specify that I am not writing this to dispute particularly his point, because, as I said, he is a holy and intelligent man who probably has a lot more to say on this than the point which bothered me, but I think that these words of his made me think about something that has often bothered me.


The idea I want to discuss here which bothered me is this: we are more alike than we are different; or to put it in the now infamous words of the wildly popular High School Musical song "we're all in this together."

I am not trying to say we're not, because Christ clearly wanted us to work together, to support one another, to build each other up (read any of the letters of the New Testament for evidence of all of this) and to reach our salvation with the aid of others. It seems to me, however, that this idea has been taken too far, and now we don't just look to help each other, but we want people to believe that they ARE each other, that we're all to some extent the same. Therefore, helping the poor is not just a charitable act but a necessary one, because you aren't different from the poor and therefore have a certain need to help them.

When this becomes a problem, for me, is when the Holy Spirit is just something inside of ourselves that we all tap into the same way; when the people around the world are essentially just us in a different package; when there is nothing to separate one from another. While this grows out of a truly sincere desire to unite and encourage aid and help for others as well as encouraging an experience of becoming who you were made to be, what I have seen is that in uniting it removes the very reason to help, the very reason to love. The problem I see boils down to this fact: I can't (and definitely shouldn't) love myself in the same way I love another; even if I could, I wouldn't want to. In order to avoid this, I think we should be weary of anything which equates all people to the same, or even to reaching into some communal consciousness.

Our love for the poor, for the suffering, for those most in need of love ought not come from our sameness to them. If our love comes from this, the problem I believe we will see is that we will help not because we care about others, but because we care about us in them. If loving others is simply an act of loving ourselves, we are not loving.

When love is sincere, it seems to me, is only when love is a genuine love for another. In that, it becomes most important not to emphasize our sameness, but to emphasize our difference, showing that we are radically different, and this is what makes us each beautiful, unique, and deserving of love.

Christianity, then, is quite important in this sense, because it always has emphasized the unique and unrepeatable dignity of each and every single human being from conception to death and on for eternity. The dignity of the person can't be emphasized more; once you are created, you are you-uniquely and extraordinarily-for the rest of eternity.

The importance of what Christianity says is precisely this uniqueness-saying we're the same might want us to help ourselves, but takes away the freedom to love. Saying we're different, however, frees us to love. As Chesterton put it, Christianity is the sword which comes in and separates, not to isolate, but rather to free us to love.

And so, my argument is this-we are made to be separate and unique. We're made to be ourselves. And in being uniquely us, we are free to love in a radical and true way. The Holy Spirit is alive, and is in each of us. He is not in us, however, in the way that He is the same thing and we just tap into it deep down in our own consciousness, but in the way that He uniquely gives each of us what we need to become more truly ourselves, and in being ourself the Spirit frees us to love with a radical and not self-seeking love.

Let the Spirit be the sword that separates and, I believe, we will see that we care more about others than ever before.