Dive In; That One Moment

I spent the last week being involved with a Steubenville Youth Conference. If you haven’t heard of these, I’m sure you’ve heard of something similar: a whole bunch of people coming together for a time of fun and fellowship centered around the faith.

I am certain this isn’t true for everyone, but in many cases the conversion moment in life (that one moment when all of a sudden things clicked and the Lord became real and present) happens at an event just like this. Maybe this happened for you at a conference, maybe a mission trip, or maybe it was some other experience where everything not of God became less important and life started to make sense....

Read the rest of this post here!


I am writing this summer for Lighthouse Catholic Media's Youth Department as a part of a Summer Project called Dive In, where we will be discussing various ways to actively grow in the faith over the summer instead of burning out or just going through the motions. Subscribe over at lighthousecatholicyouth.com to get updates every time a new one of these posts goes up!

[Coffee with the Saints]: Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio

It's been awhile since I did one of these, and instead of trying to come up with sweet information you might never have heard about a saint you've heard of, I thought I'd pick a saint that many people haven't heard of and introduce him to more people. Blessed Jose was born in 1913 in Mexico and died there at the age of only 15 in 1928. Here is his story as I understand it:

At the start of the 20th Century, the Catholics in Mexico were being heavily persecuted by the government. Calles, the Mexican president at the time, was a freemason and a devout atheist, and had issued a Constitution in 1917 which said that the Roman Catholic Church was to be persecuted. In response to this harsh persecution, a war broke out in 1926 where the Cristeros, a group of Catholic citizens, launched a revolution against this government in order to fight for the ability to practice their Catholic faith freely.

In 1926, when this started, Jose was still just a 13 year old boy. He had a desire at the time to go out and fight because he was a devout and on fire Catholic even at such a young age, but his family would not let him fight. One time, during the course of this war, Jose saw that the the army was desecrating the Eucharist, the very Body and Blood of Jesus which he held so dear, and he went out to protect it. Due to this, the army arrested him and one of his friends and threw them in jail because they were a part of this resistance.

This is where the story gets tough to read since it'll be graphic. I'm not doing that for the sake of being graphic, but because it's what happened, and it's powerful to see what this young man did in the face of such challenges.

While in jail, the army took Jose's friend and were going to kill him. Since they really wanted to get Jose to turn his back on his faith, they put a gun to his friend's head and told Jose that they would shoot his friend unless he yelled "Death to Christ the King, long live the government," and if he did his friend would live. The army did this because the battle cry of the cristeros, "Viva Cristo Rey" meant "Long live Christ the King" and they wanted to stop the power of this cry. Jose, in his amazing faith, smiled at his friend and said "prepare a spot for me in heaven, tell Christ the King that I will come to see Him soon."

After the army killed Jose's friend, they then turned their attention to him. After much torture, they decided that they knew the way to do it: [warning, graphic] they took the soles of Jose's feet and shaved them so that there was almost nothing left, and then they marched him through town, making him walk on the cobblestone streets. While walking on these streets, they continually offered Jose an out: say what we want you to say, and we'll carry you, we'll feed you, we'll take care of. When Jose continued to ignore them, they took him to a field, where they were going to kill him. With a gun to his head, they gave him one more chance. Instead of giving in, Jose made a cross in the dirt, kissed it, and shouted "Long live Christ the King! Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe!" They killed him.

It's hard to know how accurate all of these details are, but we know for a fact that this 15 year old boy witnessed to his faith and died as a martyr. We know that He is Blessed because the Church believes that he lived as a courageous and outstanding witness to the faith and that the Lord has rewarded him by allowing him to gain entrance into heaven. When we're faced with challenges and difficulties, let us look to the example of this boy, and saints like him, who at a young age faced extreme difficulty but refused to renounce their faith.

Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio, pray for us!

If you like this post (or think it's dumb) comment and let me know! This coffee with the saints is a series that I am doing to reflect on the lives of the saints; if you want to read more about it or see other saint posts, you can click the tab on the top of this page or click this link Saints. 

Sweet, Sweet Summer

This summer, I am very excited to be taking part in a series over at lighthousecatholicyouth.com to talk about the experience of living one's faith during the summer. Most of us who have been living the journey of faith have had some good experiences in our summers and probably some not so good moments. The goal with this project is simple: grow in our spiritual lives through the everyday activities of summer. Since I'm going to be writing over there, I probably won't do as much blogging here; hit up lighthouse catholic youth and give them a follow to stay up to date! 

Without further ado, I would like to share with you the first post of this series from my good friend JW Beatovich which introduces what we are doing! Check it out and leave us some comments; we look forward to journeying with you this summer in our faith! Here it is: Dive In

[Book Review]: At the Heart of the Gospel

At the Heart of the Gospel:

Reclaiming the Body for the New Evangelization.

Christopher West

Image Books, 2012

Christopher West, a very well known speaker and writer on the Theology of the Body, wrote this book in 2012 after taking a significant amount of time away from speaking and writing. This time away, he explains in the endnotes, was as a result of over-exerting himself in teaching on the theology of the body. In this book, he returns from the sabbatical with a 200 page summary of his teachings in a detailed explanation of the way that the body can be re-claimed for the new evangelization. This book is also, in many ways, a response to the many, sometimes very harsh, criticisms he has received over the years. 

I have always been a fan of West's work and speaking, and I particularly enjoyed reading this book. In this work, West sets about explaining, in good detail, many of the main aspects of his teaching, which all come from the beautiful Theology of the Body of John Paul II. As West explains, his goal in writing this book is "that all who read this work will enter more deeply into the 'great mystery' that lies at the heart of the Gospel and come away all the more compelled to 'go into the main streets and invite everyone to the wedding feast' (Mt 22:9)" (p.6). For me, that was the great beauty of this work: it not only presents many of the main points of John Paul II's teaching, but it does so in a way that it encourages all readers to use this teaching to reach out to others and present them with the Gospel message. 

In the way that West has been known for (and also widely criticized for) doing, he presents the Christian ethos, or worldview, as the remedy to the world's two extremes. Whether it is materialism versus spiritualism, puritanism versus sexual deviancy or idolatry versus iconoclasm, West explains that the proper answer to the two extremes is always the Incarnation. "The Incarnational view of reality--the authentically Christian view--," he says, "recognizes that, for man, there is no reaching the 'higher' without pondering the 'lower'" (p.56). This is the basis for the work of John Paul II, which was continued by Pope Benedict XVI, that West has spent his life's work explaining: the mystery of the incarnation gives a particular value to the human body that we as Christians cannot ignore. As John Paul II said in his audience on Feb. 20, 1980 (TOB 19:4 in the most common translation) "the human body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine." This statement by John Paul II, which is more or less a thesis statement of his 129 weekly audiences now known as the Theology of the Body, is in many ways what West is trying to show in his work: the human body shows us a particular part of the Lord's relationship to His people which we cannot see if we ignore the body. 

If you are someone who has grown critical of the work of Christopher West, this book would be important for you to read, as he gives a particular glimpse into his motives that you won't find elsewhere. With more poise than one might expect, West responds to his critics through his theology, but also by explaining his personal faults. While not backing down from his arguments, West spends much time in his footnotes explaining his errors in explanation and the way they affected the response to his work. West uses this criticism as the springboard to see where his explanations may have been wrong and led people away from the truth, repeatedly apologizing for any time when pride or zeal may have hindered his ability to teach properly. If you are one of those who was once offended by anything West said, take the time to read this book and its footnotes, and I think your opinion of him or his teaching will improve.

As you might guess from reading my review, I strongly recommend this book. If you have never been exposed to John Paul II's Theology of the Body, this book is for you (don't stop with this book, keep learning about this wonderful teaching, but this would be a fine place to start). If you are vaguely familiar with the Theology of the Body but would like to know more, or would like to see how it all applies to our lives, this is for you. If you are very familiar with the Theology of the Body, this book is for you as it will inspire you to use TOB as a springboard for the new evangelization, and it will help you to concretely see what all you have learned means. 

This book was a fairly easy read, but don't rush through it; take the time to carefully read this book and learn more about the way that the Lord has shown Himself to us through our experience of the body. To end with a quote from Gaudium et Spes which John Paul II took as a sort of anthem in his discourses on the body, we can see that with its spousal imagery the body (speaking particularly about Ephesians 5, where Paul tells us that the love of man and wife reflects the love of Christ and the Church) "reveals--in a particular way--man to man himself and makes his supreme vocation clear" (GS 22). I encourage you to learn more about the way that the human body shows God's love, allowing that to reveal to you more of yourself as well as your supreme vocation, that of being loved by God as a precious son or daughter. 

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review as a part of their blogging for books program; you can learn more about this by visiting the program's website here Blogging for Books." This book is written by very well known author and Theology of the Body speaker Christopher West; if you want to learn more about him or find his other books you can visit his website at http://www.christopherwest.com/, and you can also read a bio of him here. You can find more info about this book from Random House publisher's website here; you can read the first chapter of this book here. The direct link to purchase this book from his website is here. You can also check out more book reviews I've done by clicking the "My Library" tab or clicking on this.

[Book Review]: Forming Intentional Disciples

This review is on a book called Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry A Weddell; you can find the book on Amazon here. You can find the website for the Catherine of Siena Institute, an Institute dedicated to helping lay people learn to live as Disciples in daily life at this link. If you want to read reviews I've done of other books, you can find those under the "My Library" tab or by clicking this link. 

Forming Intentional Disciples: 

The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus 

Sherry A. Weddell
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division 2012

As you can probably guess from the title, this book is about the call of the lay person to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and how you can follow this call. The author, Sherry A. Weddell, is a lay Catholic woman who started an institute called the Catherine of Siena Institute with a priest named Fr. Michael Sweeney, O.P. in order to address the issue of the lack of discipleship in Catholics in the United States. What she has found in her time traveling the country to teach on discipleship is contained in this book, where she lays out the problem of the normal Catholic in today's world and then the solution to help that normal Catholic become an intentional disciple of Jesus Christ.

The Basics of the Book

Sherry starts this book with an entire chapter on statistics, showing the fact that Catholics in the U.S. are leaving faster than they are coming, and that even those who are sticking around are not actively engaged in living their life as Disciples. After giving the statistics, which in many cases are quite shocking, she starts to lay out what she thinks is the problem. The crux of this problem, Sherry says, is that cultural Catholicism isn't working anymore, and until we start calling our people to intentional Catholicism, and specifically intentional discipleship, we won't stop these trends. The key, she rightly observes, is that discipleship is not seen as normal; what is seen as normal is the cultural norm of going to the Church you were raised in, and yet this is not enough to sustain a person in times of difficulty or even simply times of curiosity. 

After laying out the problem, she does a wonderful job of showing the quest that most people will go on to eventually deciding to become disciple, through the various thresholds they need to experience and finally into them choosing to be intentional disciples. After walking through the thresholds, Sherry spends the last few chapters of her book talking about what those trying to evangelize others can do well, from the big picture of presenting the Gospel to the programs which have worked in various parishes and might work for yours too. 

What I Really Liked

This book does some incredible things which I think will be VERY helpful for any person who wants to spread the message of the Gospel in the modern world. I think she says a lot more than I could ask anyone to listen to me explain, so I will simply choose a couple of things I really liked, and encourage you to read the book to find more!

One thing which I think is very helpful in any difficult situation is to understand what you are up against, and Sherry does a great job of explaining the problem she is addressing. We have all seen what she is talking about as the big problem: even the people going to Church see just going as the end of their relationship with the Church, and don't ever think about living their life for Christ. If the people inside the Church don't live their lives for Christ, than why would someone from outside the Church want to join? Why would people inside the Church who have a genuine hunger for truth want to stay? The call to discipleship must be talked about and reinforced, and the people must learn who Jesus is and be given the chance to accept Him and start to live for Him. 

The other thing which I specifically want to mention is her continued emphasis throughout this book on the need to tell the Kerygma, the story of Jesus, the Gospel message. She quotes Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, who stated that "Faith as such flowers only in the presence of the Kerygma, or the announcement," and explains that announcing the Gospel has to be the start of all of our evangelistic efforts. This, I think, is what will help any person who wants to evangelize others; start with the story of Jesus, help that person see how the story of Jesus applies to them, and let that be the reason the person starts to think about the faith. When people in our parishes seem disinterested, it is because this story hasn't taken root in them; if we allow it to, then something will begin to change! 

My Main Critique 

I know that saying anything negative about this book is kind of crazy because everyone loves it, and for very good reason, but there was one specific thing which I think could be improved/changed. I should preface this by saying that I enjoyed reading this book, and I learned a lot, but I was a bit distracted by this one thing which came up a couple of times. 

The issue that I have centers around the Eucharist and the Sacraments, which she describes, as "central moments in the relationship with Christ" (p. 66). While I get the point of that part of the book, which is calling for the Gospel message to be central, what scares me is the thought of the Sacraments as moments in our relationship-I think they are much more than that. The Sacraments, and most specifically the Eucharist, should be where our life as Catholics comes from and goes to. In another part of the book, she speaks about a parish where the observation is that the central call of Discipleship brings people back to the Eucharist, and I think this is exactly right-the Sacraments aren't there as moments on our path to relationship, but they are the living out of our relationship. In an attempt to call people to really appreciate the Sacraments and to go after a relationship and not just assume that the Sacraments will take care of it, I think she misses a big part of what the Sacraments, and specifically the Eucharist, do. 

Sherry wants to make the point that we need the proper interior disposition in order to properly make the Sacraments, something for which she finds support in many Church documents, and so of course I won't argue with that. Where I grow weary, though, is in her presentation about the Eucharist as "Source and Summit" (Lumen Gentium 11); this is of course very true, but my issue is that she seems only interested in it being the summit. Since it is a summit, she says, we need to understand that in order to get to the summit we need proper preparation. While I again obviously agree, I think it is important to not that Lumen Gentium also said that the Eucharist is the source to show us that in even our preparation and growing in our faith the Eucharist has to be central. The Eucharist is not something that we have to somehow work up to being ready for-if we do, none of us could ever get to that great mystery. We do need a proper belief in order to have reverence, but the journey of our faith is not only a journey to the Eucharist, but also a journey from and with the Eucharist. I think that Sherry might agree with this, but I found it lacking in her presentation on the Sacraments, and thought it was worth noting. 

Please Read this Book

If you are someone who works for the Church, loves the Church, and wants to bring souls to Christ, this book is well worth reading. Sherry helps us to see something which truly is a problem in our world-we are not actively calling people to the Discipleship that is what Christ wants from us, and we are even surprised when people decide to live as Disciples. Instead of being surprised, she helps us see here how we can train ourselves and those we work with to understand Discipleship, and therefore be able to trust that the Holy Spirit will work, that God will call people to Discipleship, and that their lives will be radically changed. 

Again, go pick up this book-if nothing else, it will rejuvenate you in your desire to win souls for Christ and His Church. Buy the book from her website by clicking this link.

Love You Deserve

From the resounding choruses of popular music to the story lines of nearly every movie to the theme of basically every single post on Facebook or twitter (or Linkedin or Google+, if you're cool like that), we are surrounded in today's world by a fury of thoughts on love. Love, we are told, is what it's all about-and we are fools if we try to say otherwise.

No, but really, it is all about love. The world we live in is in seemingly constant chaos, and the only way to navigate through is to keep pushing on by giving and receiving love in whatever way we are able on a daily basis. This thought, which is so central to the thinking in today's world, is in many ways good. And in others it is the main thing keeping us from living the way that we should.

Here is the problem: we have taken love from the most wonderful thing in the world, a thing which is about sacrifice and giving completely of oneself in order to allow the beloved to reach their fullest potential and have joy for all of eternity and reduced it to seeking pleasure. Instead of love dying on a cross, we look for love which makes me happy. Instead of a love which says "not my will but Yours," we look for a love which says, "whatever common ground we can find to give us both immediate satisfaction, let's take that." Amid all of this, then, the Catholic Church and anyone who says that love is about self-sacrifice and not self-gratification are seen as the enemies, pointing us away from the here and now and towards eternity, which of course is scary and not to be talked about (read Bad Catholic's wonderful explanation of this here: Popular Music as a Nauseating, No Good, Very Bad Attempt at Propping Up a False Sense of Eternity (With Goats)).

Let me try and explain in a language we all understand a little bit more than my incoherent ramblings: movies.

Recently I watched the movie "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." The main theme of this story, I think, is one that the teacher played by Paul Rudd (who somehow has appeared in 97.9% (ish) of every movie made in the last 5 years (that number might be made up)) explains to the main character when he says that, as human beings, "we accept the love we think we deserve." I think that there is so much truth to this it is silly. We tend to have a hard time falling in love with or letting ourselves be loved by the God of the universe because we see ourselves as broken and sinful and can't imagine the All-Powerful God loving us; we don't want to accept a spouse who will love us unconditionally and sacrificially because we see ourselves as being conditional and selfish beings, and so on. In that sense, I think that the Perks of Being a Wallflower and author Stephen Chbosky are right on.

The problem I see, though, is with how the characters play out this search love. For Charlie, the main character, his experience of seeking after the love he deserves and the love those around him deserve is distorted in the way that early adolescence tends to distort things in our human minds. More than adolescence, though, his searching for love is distorted by the thing that seems so prominent in today's culture that it is almost unavoidable: love is about the satisfaction in the here and now. [There might be some spoilers here] For Charlie, this encounter and searching for love is about the here and now. From making new friends to taking drugs and ultimately to a "beautiful" one-night stand with the girl he loves (I put beautiful in quotes to make you realize that I don't think it is beautiful, I think the book and movie attempt to show it this way). This story, supposed to be the coming of age story of a generation, shows the major problem that we have with love (and that I think Marc at Bad Catholic pointed out in that article I linked to above), which is that in our search for something so eternal as love we settle on the temporal. We seek pleasure as our means to self-satisfaction, when really it is simply a mind-numbing technique to help us not think about the fact that we are seeking self-interest, which is actually contrary to love.

So, here is my point: when you really want to seek love, don't seek yourself. Don't seek pleasure. Don't seek momentary experiences. Seek the other. Seek self-sacrifice. Instead of trying to feel infinite for a moment, seek a relationship with Him who is infinite, Him who is eternal, Him who will never stop running after you.

It might be hard, but it'll be worth it. It will be worth it because when you seek after the eternal God, you will find yourself not wallowing in self-pity and a desire to make yourself happy, but a relationship with the God who will never leave you broken, but rather will always search for you in love, hoping to show you how to respond to Him and to be with Him for all of eternity.

When you seek yourself, that's what you'll get; when you seek true love by giving yourself away, you'll find the God of the universe, and He'll give you way more than some one-night stand can give you.

"Dear young people, the happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only he gives the fullness of life to humanity! With Mary, say your own "yes" to God, for he wishes to give himself to you." -Pope Benedict XVI

Please let me know what you think in the comments below, and if you like this post share it!