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.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
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.
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
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 .
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
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
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
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.
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. |
Monday, March 4, 2013
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."
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.
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.
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