Thoughts on conversion

 

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Luke 5:27–32

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells Matthew, “Follow me.” The call of Jesus addresses the mind, but it is meant to move through the mind into the body, and through the body into the whole of one’s life, into the most practical of moves and decisions. “Follow me” has the sense of “apprentice to me” or “walk as I walk; think as I think; choose as I choose.” Discipleship entails an entire reworking of the self according to the pattern and manner of Jesus. Upon hearing the address of the Lord, the tax collector, we are told, “got up and followed him.” The Greek word behind “got up” is anastas, the same word used to describe the resurrection (anastasis) of Jesus from the dead. Following Jesus is indeed a kind of resurrection from the dead, since it involves the transition from a lower form of life to a higher, from a preoccupation with the temporary goods of this world to an immersion in the goodness of God. Those who have undergone a profound conversion tend to speak of their former life as a kind of illusion, something not entirely real. Thus Paul can say, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me”; Thomas Merton can speak of the “false self” that has given way to the authentic self; and, perhaps most movingly, the father of the prodigal son can say, “Your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on temptations

 

This past Wednesday we began our annual Lenten journey, subjecting ourselves to the imposition of ashes and the exhortation, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” The Scripture readings for the First Sunday of Lent call us not only to repent of our sins but to confront the temptations that might lead us into sin. 

From the perspective of Christianity, of course, there is a crucial difference between a temptation and a sin. Sins are “unloving choices”; temptations are occasions/invitations to make a choice. That choice can wind up being either loving or unloving. If we make loving choices even while tempted to do otherwise, we grow in virtue and holiness. If we succumb to the temptation and make an unloving choice, we alienate ourselves from peace and goodness, eroding our fundamental orientation toward God and love. Sometimes when people come to confession and state that they are “struggling” with something, what they are saying is not that they have actually sinned, but that they have been tempted to do so. Often, of course, we experience that struggle as exhausting, and so it is for good reason that we pray, echoing the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead me not into temptation.” Temptations aren’t sins, but they can wear us out!

We might dismiss the temptations which Jesus faced as portrayed in this Sunday’s Gospel as uniquely his own. That would be a mistake. Jesus’ temptations occur soon after Jesus has had the powerful experience at his baptism of being filled with the Spirit and knowing in a profound way that he is God’s beloved Son. It is this very sense of his identify that the tempter tries to undermine. So too with us. We know who we are, who we are called to be by God, and who we want at our best to be. In our lives, it is our identities as beloved sons and daughters of God, as faithful disciples of Christ, that the tempter seeks to call into question and undermine.

What is important about the temptations of Jesus is that they were real temptations over which he had to mull and struggle. In his case, all of his temptations could easily become occasions for discouragement. Let us pray that as we struggle with temptation in our lives, we not become discouraged, but find within them opportunities to grow in our deepest identity as those who love and serve in the manner of Jesus.

Lenten Blessings.

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.

More thoughts on Lent

 

We enter once again into the holy and grace-filled season of Lent. The Church, in her wisdom, gives us three clear practices every year: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. During Lent, we are meant to take on these concrete disciplines so that our hearts can be drawn more deeply to the Lord. Watch here.

Let me offer three very specific recommendations this year.

First, prayer.

Lent is the privileged time to renew our friendship with the Lord. Can I urge you this year to set aside some quiet time every day—five minutes, ten minutes, whatever you can manage—to sit with God? Speak to him honestly, listen in the silence, meditate on Scripture. If you need a bit of structure, follow the daily Lenten reflections from Word on Fire or any other good Catholic apostolate offering a daily spiritual program. The key is intentionality: Carve out that space to let the Lord speak to your heart.

Second, fasting.

Of course, follow the Church’s norms on abstaining from meat and limiting food intake. But I’d also challenge you to fast from some of the habits that occupy too much of your attention—maybe it’s scrolling through social media on your phone, binge-watching television, or playing video games. You don’t have to necessarily eliminate them entirely, but cut them back significantly. Why? Because when we quiet these distractions, we make room for more prayerful reflection, and we allow a deeper hunger for God to rise within us.

Third, almsgiving.

This is the practice of giving: giving money, giving time, giving attention. Be intentional about generosity this Lent by performing one concrete act of mercy each week. Donate to a charity or a nonprofit ministry. Give to the poor. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Visit someone who is sick or lonely. Whatever you do, give alms. Almsgiving expresses that great spiritual truth: Our souls expand in the measure that we give ourselves away.

May I humbly suggest that one way you might direct your almsgiving is toward Word on Fire? Your contribution will help us to continue to evangelize the culture with free content that reaches millions of people.

So, this Lent: Pray in a focused and quiet way, fast from the things that clutter your heart and mind, and give in a spirit of sincere generosity. If we take up these disciplines, Lent won’t become a burden. It will become a season of renewal, clarity, and deep joy. May God bless you with a transformative and fruitful Lent. In Christ,

Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Lent

After fasting for forty days and conquering every temptation that came His way, Jesus returned to Galilee and began His public ministry with these words,  “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

Indeed, now is the hour of fulfillment. 

We are called by Christ and Our Lady of Fatima this Ash Wednesday to once again acknowledge our sinfulness, so that through God’s grace and mercy we may be purified and share in Christ’s victory.

Each Lent we are invited to join in the Lord’s time of fasting for forty days. 

As Jesus warned in the parable of the sower, cares of the world and a delight in riches and earthly things threatens to choke out our spiritual life like thorns engulfing a bush (Mk. 4:18). 

By generously giving to others and by offering up the pains of fasting and mortification this Lent, the Lord purifies our hearts from earthly attachment and these pains are instead joined to His sacrifice as an offering of love for the salvation of souls.

Yet, fasting and almsgiving are challenging, and at the beginning of Lent, such trials can be daunting. 

Spiritual exercises make clear the spiritual combat which is always present. 

As the Enemy vainly tried to through and during this time of fasting, so will that same Enemy try to lead us to discouragement and to abandon the resolutions we take on this Lent.

The good news is that we need not be afraid to face this battle! 

Instead, let us take refuge in the Immaculate Heart of Mary and follow the example of our Savior. 

Each time the devil tempted Christ, the Lord responded by dispelling the attack with the power and truth of Scripture. 

So while we fast, we must also pray!

When we pray the Rosary and reflect upon the lives of Jesus and Mary, we are given the wisdom and strength we need to see past any sinful illusions and to overcome the temptations we might face this Lent.

Therefore, through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let us hear the call of Christ, echoed by Our Lady of Fatima. 

Let us repent and believe in the Gospel!

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

Christopher P. Wendt
International Director
Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima

Thoughts on Ash Wednesday

 

Ash Wednesday

In the Gospel for Ash Wednesday, we hear Jesus remind us three times that our hidden acts are neither unseen nor unrewarded. No, “your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” Taking up our daily cross (see Luke 9:23) is the most important penance we can offer—the daily cross of our state of life, such as: going to sometimes unsatisfying work for your family; helping your children for the umpteenth time with patient love and a smile even when tired or upset; as a Religious or Priest, rising early once again, to offer praise to God and to intercede for the many needs we learn of, and working to alleviate them; and at the eve of life, being patient with the infirmities and limitations as they increase—and offering them with prayer for others. “And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”   Those hidden acts of self-sacrifice are neither unseen nor unrewarded. In fact, they are proofs of genuine love. We deepen our conversion through the often-unchosen penances of daily life.   Grumbling makes our burdens un-bearable. Love, however, is healing and lightens the load: loving God in prayer; loving others in self-giving generosity; and loving ourselves in fasting, which quiets the demands of our untamed nature.    Lord God, help us as we begin this Holy Season to take up our daily cross with love, so that our conversion to You may ever deepen. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.   In His healing wounds,   Fr. Joseph Mary Wolfe, MFVA

Thoughts on gratitude

 

A Spirit of Gratitude

From: Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective

Life loses its dynamism and exuberance when everything that happens to us is viewed as a predictable result of predictable actions….. Without a spirit of gratitude, life flattens out and becomes dull and boring. But when we continue to be surprised by new manifestations of life and continue to praise and thank God and our neighbor, routine and boredom cannot take hold. Then all of life becomes a reason for saying thanks.

Reflection Question: What would change if I approached even ordinary moments as reasons for thanksgiving?

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”   - 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

Thoughts on Saint Valentine

 

As many people in the secular world reduce this day to simply an exaltation of romance, in the traditional Latin calendar we remember a man who shows us the path of true love, the priest and martyr, St. Valentine. Our Lady of Fatima warned us that the Church would suffer a time of great trial, and many would lose sight of the good of chastity and purity. The nature and purpose of love, of marriage, and of the family have become deeply misunderstood or outright rejected across the world and such chaos has brought great harm to millions of souls.

So while it is undeniably honorable to have a day dedicated to love, it is imperative that such a dedication is guided by a true and profound understanding of love’s nature. So on this day which so many use to justify all kinds of licentiousness, let us turn back to the origin of this celebration and reflect upon the life of St. Valentine. St. Valentine was a priest during the third century. While little is known about him, what is certain is that he served the Lord devoutly, so much so that he took a vow of celibacy and was ready to lay his life down for our King. In a society obsessed with feelings of romance, such acts of love seem utterly foolish. Yet, St. Valentine understood that love is not simply a pleasurable feeling, nor is about what the individual can get out of a relationship. Love is about recognizing the good in the other and willing that person’s good, even if it means your own harm. It is not concerned about “me”, but about “you." It is not concerned about what feels good, but what it is good. Thus, when we see that God is good and the source of all that is good, we are ready to lay down our senses, our desires, our very lives and all that we are for Him, as He has done for us. This is the love which is above every other virtue. This is the love Our Lady of Fatima has for us and which She calls us to. This is the love which draws a man and woman so closely together that through God’s grace they become a family and start a family. This is the love we must celebrate and live out this day! In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Christopher P. Wendt International Director Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima

Thoughts on relationships

 In Sunday’s Gospel Jesus speaks about his mission on earth, indicating that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus does not overturn the Mosaic law; rather, he gives it a new interpretation, one that is even more demanding than the one given the law by Jewish leaders. To truly keep the law, one must go beyond it. With that in mind, Jesus speaks to his disciples about the little things that can erode their relationship with God and others and escalate into major offenses.  

By instructing his disciples to watch out for the little transgressions, Jesus did not intend to frighten his followers into obeying a God whom they might falsely imagine was lying in wait to punish them for every small inadequacy or transgression. Instead, he alerts his followers that little slights, left unchecked, can lead to major offenses with dire consequences. By the same token, great love and greatness in God’s reign begin with little acts of love toward the least brother or sister.

On February 18th we begin Lent, and there will be many good ways to make it special. Some ways are about giving things up, some are about taking things on. For me, it’s a prime time to examine before God all of my relationships: to God, to things (food, entertainment, work, TV, internet, etc.), to myself, and to other people (family, friends, fellow workers, neighbors, as well as the poor, be they known or unknown). How Christian are those relationships? Do they lead me to greater health and holiness, greater peace, greater generosity? And, in regard to my relationships to other human beings, how LOVING are those relationships? Because love is something other than liking or desiring or getting along. As a follower of Christ, in my relationships, do I act (or at least want to act) as light and as salt? Do I respect the goodness and beauty in everyone else?  

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.

Thoughts on original sin

 

Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 7:14–23

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches that evil comes from within. From our hearts “come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”  The Church teaches that such evils are consequences of original sin. The doctrine holds that there is something fundamentally off about us, that all is not well, that we are off-kilter, skewed, mixed up. We Catholics don’t hold to a doctrine of total depravity, but we do indeed hold that original sin has worked its way into every nook and cranny of our lives: our minds, our wills, our desires and passions, even our very bodies. As G. K. Chesterton argued a century ago, original sin is the only doctrine for which there is empirical evidence, for we can feel it within ourselves and we can see the effects of it everywhere. One of the surest signs of our dysfunction is that we tend to celebrate all of the wrong people and despise or look down upon the best people. Pay very close attention to the people that you don’t like, to those that you consider obnoxious; it might tell you a lot about your own spiritual state. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on miracles

 

Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 6:53–56

Friends, today’s Gospel reports Jesus healing many people at Gennesaret. We hear that people brought the sick from all over the region and all of them were cured. “Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.” An awful lot of contemporary theologians and Bible commentators have tried to explain away the miracles of Jesus as spiritual symbols. Perhaps most notoriously, many preachers tried to explain the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as a “miracle” of charity, with everyone sharing the little that he had. But I think it’s hard to deny that the first Christians were intensely interested in the miracles of Jesus and that they didn’t see them as mere literary symbols! They saw them for what they really were: actions of God breaking into our world. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on salt

 

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:13–16

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks, “If salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?” That question ought to bother us as much today as it did Jesus’s audience long ago. What he means is that a weak Christianity is a disaster for the world, for the world depends upon the Christian Church in order to become what it was meant to be. Consider the truly awful gun violence in the streets of Chicago and other large American cities. A vibrant Christianity would actively get in the way of this affront to human dignity. Vibrant Christian churches would rub salt into the earth of this violence; vibrant Christian witness would be a city set on a hill. Consider the tens of millions of unborn eliminated over the past fifty years. I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of the mothers and fathers of these murdered children came from a Christian background. Why wasn’t their Christianity strong enough to function as salt and light? Why wasn’t their faith illuminating enough to shine a light into the darkness of what they were doing? The clear implication is that without vibrant Christians, the world is a much worse place.  Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount

 In the Sermon on the Mount selection which follows immediately after last Sunday’s rendering of the Beatitudes, Jesus says to his disciples (to us!) that we are light and we are salt. We might ask ourselves, what do salt and light do, what do they have in common? 

It seems to me that light is meant to be cast on something else. If, for example, it is cast on a painting, it does so not to make it beautiful, but to let the painting’s beauty become known. The use of such light isn’t intended to call attention to itself. In fact, if light does, we complain, saying that it’s blinding, keeping us from seeing clearly the very object it is meant to illuminate.  

And what about salt? We use salt on food not to make it tasty, but to let the tastiness of the food that’s already there to somehow emerge more obviously. And, like the light, it’s not meant to call attention to itself. In fact, if we put too much salt on a food, we complain, saying it’s salty, and that it’s destroying the natural good taste of the food.

OK, so Jesus says that WE are light and salt. What’s his point? I think that he’s teaching us something about Christian love. For you see, our love for those we know and for those we don’t know, our love for all of creation, is meant to draw out the beauty and goodness that already exists, as a gift from God, in that other person. Our love is not meant to make someone something other than what he or she already is as a son or daughter of God. Our love is not meant to make others good or beautiful; they are already that. Rather, our love is meant to draw out, to point out, to make obvious and clear, others’ beauty.  

Imbedded in that insight is a challenge which all of us face when we take seriously the mandate to be light and salt… to love in the manner of Jesus himself.

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.

Thoughts on your mission

 

Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr

Mark 6:7–13

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus sends the Twelve on their mission to announce the nearness of the kingdom. I want to say a few things about embracing our mission and being equipped for it. What do you need for your mission? You need a keen sense of God as the absolute center of your life. In a word, you require the spiritual gifts of piety and fear of the Lord. I realize that these terms can sound fussy and puritanical, but they are actually naming something strong and essential.  You need fear of the Lord, which does not mean that you are afraid of God. It means that nothing to you is more important than God, that everything in your life centers around and is subordinate to your love for God. And your equipping needs to include piety. That means that you honor God above everything else, that you worship him alone. These spiritual gifts enable you to find true balance; they allow you to know what your life is about. Equipped with these gifts, you are ready for mission. Having received the fire of the Holy Spirit, you are ready to set the world on fire. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on fear

 

The House of Christ

From: Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective

Why is there no reason to fear any longer? Jesus himself answers this question succinctly when he approaches his frightened disciples walking on the lake: “It is I. Do not be afraid” (John 6:21). The house of love is the house of Christ, the place where we can think, speak, and act in the way of God - not in the way of a fear-filled world.

Reflection Question: How will you make space today to hear Jesus say to you, “Take heart, it is I - do not be afraid”?

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”   - Matthew 14: 26, 27