Jubilee Year and Plenary Indulgences

On December 8th. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception we began the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. This jubilee year carries with it a special opportunity to earn plenary indulgences by making pilgrimage through a holy door.  For many Catholics that first sentence will raise a few questions. 1. What is a jubilee year? 2. What is a Holy Door? 3. What is a plenary indulgence? 4. How to I earn earn a plenary indulgence?

1. What is a jubilee year?
A jubilee year in the Catholic Church is a time of grace. The motto for this jubilee year is “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Lk 6:36 ). Pope Francis has declared this year from December 8th, 2015, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, through December 20th, 2016, The Feast of Christ the King of the Universe, to be an Extraordinary Year of Mercy.
This jubilee (or Holy Year) is extraordinary because it falls outside of the normal 25 year cycle for a Holy Year. The first Holy Year plenary indulgence was initiated by Pope Boniface VIII on Christmas in the year 1300 and set an interval of every 100 years. Clement VI shortened this interval to every 50 years in 1343, and Urban VI further reduced the interval to every 33 years in 1389. Paul II (Ineffabilis providentia, April 19, 1470) set the cycle of holy years at one every 25 years; Sixtus IV therefore declared a Jubilee in 1475; this interval has remained in force, notwithstanding the extraordinary jubilees.... Gradually, the meaning of the jubilee shifted from the simple “plenissime” indulgence to a broader and more positive intention: spiritual renewal in love for God, fidelity to the Gospel and thereby the progress of human society in justice and charity” (Pius XII, Bull Jubilaeum maximum, May 26, 1949) The Holy Year convoked by Pope Francis falls ourside of the this 25 year cycle and so is exraordinary. The Popes have convoked many extraordinary Holy Years through history both to commemorate anniversaries and to advert dangers against the church. The occasion for this holy year is the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of Vatican Council II, December 8, 1965.

2. What is a Holy Door?
The Holy Door is located in St. Peters Basilica in Rome. Traditionally during a Holy Year pilgrims would travel to Rome to walk through one of the four Holy Doors located in each of the four major basilicas. Those doors are bricked shut and only opened during Holy Years so that Pilgrims may gain the plenary indulgence associated with passing through them. Pope John Paul II stated that the Holy Door "... evokes the passage from sin to grace which every Christian is called to accomplish. Jesus said, 'I am the door' (Jn 10:7) in order to make it clear that no one can come to the Father except through Him. This designation which Jesus applies to Himself testifies to the fact that He alone is the Savior sent by the Father. There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into this life of communion with God: This is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation. To Him alone can the words of the psalmist be applied in full truth: 'This is the door of the Lord where the just may enter' (Ps 118:20)." 
Apostolic Constitution Per annum sacrum (December 25, 1950) proclaimed the universal character of the jubilee indulgence, which was extended until December 31, 1951. It was no longer absolutely necessary to make the journey to Rome, since ordinaries were authorized to designate in every episcopal see, for the prescribed visits, the cathedral church and three other churches of oratories in which worship services were celebrated regularly.

As part of this Holy Year of Mercy Holy Doors will for the first time be available in individual diocese. In our Diocese of Duluth the Holy Door is located in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth. The opening of these Holy Doors provides a special opportunity for as many Catholics to be able to make the pilgrimage through a Holy Door as possible and each door provides the same opportunity for an indulgence as the Holy Door in St. Peters.

3. What is a plenary indulgence?
This is how an indulgence is defined in the Code of Canon Law (can. 992) and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 1471): "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints". 

This indulgence can be gained for yourself or for the soul of someone already deceased. You cannot however earn the indulgence on behalf of another living person. 

A plenary indulgence can be earned once per day. 

How do I earn a plenary indulgence?

There are many ways to earn a plenary indulgence, but for the purpose of the Holy Year of Mercy the requirements are: 

— have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;
— have sacramentally confessed their sins;
— receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required);
— pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. This can be any prayer but an Our Father and a Hail Mary are recommended. 

Having met the above requirements, for the Holy Year of Mercy the final act of the indulgence would be to make a pious pilgrimage to one of the Holy Doors and to Pass through the door. This should if possible be done on the same day as going to reconciliation, receiving the Eucharist and  praying for the intention of the Pope, however it can be performed up to 20 days away. Apostioic Penitentiary The Gift of the Indulgence

It is also possible to earn an indulgence by completing the above preparation and then performing one of the Spiritual or Corporal work of mercy. Pope Francis Says in his letter outlining the means of obtaining indulgences in the Jubliee year, "Each time that one of the faithful personally performs one or more of these actions, he or she shall surely obtain the Jubilee Indulgence." The seven corporal works of mercy are; 1. To feed the hungry, 2. To give drink to the thirsty, 3. To clothe the naked, 4. To shelter the homeless. 5. To visit the sick, 6. To visit the imprisoned, 7. To bury the dead. The seven spiritual works of mercy are; 1. To counsel the doubtful, 2. To instruct the ignorant, 3. To admonish the sinner, 4. To comfort the sorrowful, 5. To forgive all injuries, 6. To bear wrongs patiently, 7. To pray for the living and the dead.

In his letter the Pope also gives consideration to the ill and elderly who may not be able to make the pilgrimage to a holy door, in his letter he states. "those for whom, for various reasons, it will be impossible to enter the Holy Door, particularly the sick and people who are elderly and alone, often confined to the home. For them it will be of great help to live their sickness and suffering as an experience of closeness to the Lord who in the mystery of his Passion, death and Resurrection indicates the royal road which gives meaning to pain and loneliness. Living with faith and joyful hope this moment of trial, receiving communion or attending Holy Mass and community prayer, even through the various means of communication, will be for them the means of obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence."

Oath against modernism

“Thus I promise, this I swear, so help me God and these holy Gospels of God.”

 also from Fr. Z

“Thus I promise, this I swear, so help me God and these holy Gospels of God.”

Posted on 2 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For some work I am doing today I had occasion to re-read the old Oath Against Modernism.

In 1910 St. Pope Pius X issued Motu Proprio a document called Sacrorum Antistitum in which he provided the Church with an °Oath Against Modernism.  He explains what he is about in the first paragraph:

It seems to Us that it has not been ignored by none of the holy Bishops [Sacrorum Antistitum] that the class of men, the modernists, whose personality was described in the encyclical letter Pascendi dominici gregis, have not refrained from working in order to disturb the peace of the Church. They have not ceased to attract followers, either, by forming a clandestine group; by these means, they inject in the very veins of the Christian Republic the virus of their doctrine, by editing books and publishing articles in anonymity or with pseudonyms. By reading anew Our aforementioned letter, and considering it carefully, it is clearly seen that this deliberate movement is the work of the men that we described in it, enemies that are the more dangerous the closer they are; that abuse their ministry by offering poisoned nourishment and by surprising the less cautious; by handing a false doctrine in which the sum of all errors is enclosed. …

Thus, he issued an Oath and all clergy, anyone holding an office, all seminaries profs, etc., were to take.  Period.

It has been awhile since I have posted on this Oath, and I suspect there may be some readers here who have either never read it or never heard of it.

Since this is something every Catholic should know about, for your opportune knowledge, here it is with my emphases and comments.

THE OATH AGAINST MODERNISM

Given by His Holiness St. Pius X September 1, 1910.

To be sworn to by all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries.

I . . . . firmly embrace and accept each and every definition that has been set forth anddeclared by the unerring teaching authority of the Church, especially those principal truths which are directly opposed to the errors of this day. [Consider the context of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This could still apply today.] And first of all, I profess that God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from the created world (see Rom. 1:90), that is, from the visible works of creation, as a cause from its effects, and that, therefore, his existence can also be demonstrated: Secondly, I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion and I hold that these same proofs are well adapted to the understanding of all eras and all men, even of this time. Thirdly, I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ when he lived among us, and that the Church was built upon Peter, the prince of the apostolic hierarchy, and his successors for the duration of time. Fourthly, I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport. Therefore, I entirely reject the heretical’ misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously. [This would be hard for some people to understand today. There is a difference between development of doctrine and change of doctrine.] I also condemn every error according to which, in place of the divine deposit which has been given to the spouse of Christ to be carefully guarded by her, there is put aphilosophical figment or product of a human conscience that has gradually been developed by human effort and will continue to develop indefinitely. Fifthly, I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality; but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth received by hearing from an external source. By this assent, because of the authority of the supremely truthful God, we believe to be true that which has been revealed and attested to by a personal God, our creator and lord.

Furthermore, with due reverence, I submit and adhere with my whole heart to the condemnations, declarations, and all the prescripts contained in the encyclical Pascendiand in the decree Lamentabili, [remember the historical context.] especially those concerning what is known as the history of dogmas. I also reject the error of those who say that the faith held by the Church can contradict history, and that Catholic dogmas, in the sense in which they are now understood, are irreconcilable with a more realistic view of the origins of the Christian religion. [This would knock a few people out of their present offices.] I also condemn and reject the opinion of those who say that a well-educated Christian assumes a dual personality-that of a believer and at the same time of a historian, as if it were permissible for a historian to hold things that contradict the faith of the believer, or to establish premises which, provided there be no direct denial of dogmas, would lead to the conclusion that dogmas are either false or doubtful. Likewise, I reject that method of judging and interpreting Sacred Scripture which, departing from the tradition of the Church, the analogy of faith, and the norms of the Apostolic See, embraces the misrepresentations of the rationalists and with no prudence or restraint adopts textual criticism as the one and supreme norm. Furthermore, I reject the opinion of those who hold that a professor lecturing or writing on a historico-theological subject should first put aside any preconceived opinion about the supernatural origin of Catholic tradition or about the divine promise of help to preserve all revealed truth forever; and that they should then interpret the writings of each of the Fathers solely by scientific principles, excluding all sacred authority, and with the same liberty of judgment that is common in the investigation of all ordinary historical documents.

Finally, I declare that I am completely opposed to the error of the modernists who hold that there is nothing divine in sacred tradition; or what is far worse, say that there is, but in a pantheistic sense, with the result that there would remain nothing but this plain simple fact-one to be put on a par with the ordinary facts of history-the fact, namely, that a group of men by their own labor, skill, and talent have continued through subsequent ages a school begun by Christ and his apostles. I firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was, and always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.

I promise that I shall keep all these articles faithfully, entirely, and sincerely, and guard them inviolate, in no way deviating from them in teaching or in any way in word or in writing. Thus I promise, this I swear, so help me God and these holy Gospels of God (which I touch with my hand).

…. Haec omnia spondeo me fideliter, integre sincereque servaturum et
inviolabiliter custoditurum, nusquam ab iis sive in docendo sive
quomodolibet verbis scriptisque deflectendo. Sic spondeo, sic iuro, sic
me Deus adiuvet et haec sancta Dei Evangelia.

I have not heard that the Church released men from this oath if they once took it.

ACTION ITEM! Mom of 4 with 5th on the way – pancreatic cancer

ACTION ITEM! Mom of 4 with 5th on the way – pancreatic cancer



From Fr. Z's Blog

ACTION ITEM! Mom of 4 with 5th on the way – pancreatic cancer

Posted on 17 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

Sending this to you in the hopes that you can help get the word out about this family.They need a miracle. We are storming heaven in prayer for her.

This family belongs to St. Stanislaus Oratory, Milwaukee, ICKSP.
Faithful Catholic husband and wife. I know them personally.
Michelle is 21 weeks pregnant with their fifth child. Their fourth child was born with Down’s Syndrome.
Michelle, the mom, has aggressive pancreatic cancer. Please see the Go Fund me article link below.

Please, please pray for this faithful Roman Catholic family.
They so desperately need us.
She needs a miracle. She won’t make it without one.
We are praying through Our Lady of Good Success, and through the intercession of Mother Marianna Torres.

Thank you, Father, for any and all prayers and help you can give to them.

Link: HERE
https://www.gofundme.com/2eeytz2c

And Michelle is the parish photographer for St. Stanislaus. She is throughout this video about the restoration of the church. You’ve visited here not that long ago.
You can see her starting at the 2:44 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qVIlw6n8k

Proposal for the Year of Mercy

Dom Mark Kirby at his blog Vultus Christi posed the following very great idea. 

Proposal for the Year of Mercy
Even if these things were done, it remains that other questions need to be addressed. A priest friend said to me this morning that bishops the world over need to consider a moratorium on Holy Communion in the hand. Perhaps for the Year of Mercy? Are we to show no mercy to the One who is present among us under the appearances of a thing so fragile as the Host? Do we not recognize in the Sacred Host God become, for love of us, vulnerable, poor, silent, and defenseless? Do we not see that the Sacred Host is the ultimate expression of what Saint Paul (see Philippians 2:7) calls the kenosis of the Son of God, that is His utter self–emptying?
More than a Mere Oversight?
The Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum promulgated eleven years ago by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments 25 March 2004, seems, in most places, to have had little or no effect. One wonders if the clergy were at all given the opportunity to come together to study the document and, with one mind, plan its implementation. Among other things, in article 92,the Instruction says clearly:

“If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful”.

http://vultuschristi.org/index.php/2015/11/ave-verum-corpus-2/

Novenas

Prayers for the intersession of the Saints and our Lady are abundant, and when said as a novena they are very powerful. Here are three that have been of great help to me. 

Saint Jude

Saint Joseph

Infant Baby Jesus of Prague

Saint Jude - The patron saint of lost causes. Say this novena for nine consecutive days. Publication must be promised. 

The Holy Saint Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need. To you I have recourse from the depths of my heart and humbly beg to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance. Help me in my present and urgent petition, in return I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked. (Say 3 Our Fathers, 3 Hail Marys and 3 Glory Be to the Father) Saint Jude, pray for us and all who invoke your aid. Amen . 

Saint Joseph - Terror of Demons , Patron of departing souls, head of the Holy Family. Say this prayer for Nine consecutive mornings. After the ninth day publish your thanks and share the prayers. 

Oh, St. Joseph,
whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt,
before the throne of God,
I place in you all my interests and desires.
Oh, St. Joseph,
do assist me by your powerful intercession,
and obtain for me from your Divine Son
all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power,
I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to thee most Loving of Fathers.
Oh, St. Joseph,
I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms;
I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.
Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me and
Ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departed souls - pray for me.
Amen. ( we always add at the end of this one. "Please pray for our priests and religious and obtain for us many more worthy ones.") 

Novena to the Infant Baby Jesus of Prague - This novena is for urgent assistance and can be used for any urgent need. This novena can be said for the traditional 9 days, or it can be said as a Storm Novena. Where urgent assistance is needed it can be said at the top of every hour for 9 consecutive hours. As with the others public thanks in the form of publication and sharing the novena is necessary. 

Jesus, You said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you." Through the intercession of Mary, Your holy Mother, I knock, I seek. I ask that my prayer be granted. (state your specific request or intention here!)
Jesus, You said, "All that you ask of the Father in My name, He will grant you." Through the intercession of Mary, Your holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Your Father in Your name that my prayer be granted. (state your specific request or intention here!)
Jesus, You said. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass." Through the intercession of Mary, Your holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (state your specific request or intention here!)
I prostrate myself before Thy Holy Image, O most gracious Infant Jesus, to offer thee my most fervant thanks for the blessings Thou hast bestowed upon me. I shall incessantly praise Thine ineffable mercy and confess that Thou alone art my God, my Helper and my Protector. Henceforth, my entire confidence shall be placed in Thee! Everywhere, I shall proclaim aloud Thy mercy and generosity, so that Thy great Love and the great deeds which Thou dost perform through this miraculous image may be acknowledged by all. May devotion to Thy Holy Infancy increase more and more in the hearts of all Christians, and may all who experience Thine assistance persevere with me in showing unceasing gratitude to Thy Most Holy Infancy, to which be praise and glory forever. Amen
Thank you, Infant Baby Jesus of Prague and the Sacred Heart of Jesus for granting my request. I will always be dedicated to You Dear Jesus and have faith that You will always be by my side. Your faithful servant (state your name).

The Missing Ingredient in Today’s Catholic Evangelization

This from One Peter Five today.

http://www.onepeterfive.com/the-missing-ingredient-in-todays-catholic-evangelization/

admitting defeat

Is allowing divorced and civilly remarried people to the reception of Holy Communion essentially just admitting defeat? The message it sends to us lay Catholics is, "The teaching of the Church is essentially not important, it is what you feel that really matters."

It essentially strips our Catholic faith to nothing and leaves us nothing to stand on. If we remove the letter of the law, and disregard the teachings of Christ it will not matter if we bring one person or a million into the reception of Holy Communion because we will have led people to falsely accept a human vision of Christ and not Christ himself. It cannot be called mercy to feed someone sand and tell them it is a steak. Even if you can trick the person to believe the sand is actually a steak, because they desperately want it to be a steak, it still will not nourish them. You will have given them good feelings, made them confident in their eating, but still ultimately led them to certain death.

Mercy is not about making people comfortable in their sin, it is welcoming them as sinner so that they may be lead to Christ. What about the serial killer that works 6 days a week in the soup kitchen, helping feed countless hungry? The 7th day he murders one of them, but helps hundreds more. He does not see anything wrong with his sin, he picks the worst of the lot, he helps hundreds and eliminates one evil person a week. Should he be told that is ok? That he is doing more good than evil? God will not mind if you are unrepentant of that one evil.We could tell him that. He could feel good and come and receive Christ, but in so doing we would be defiling Christ by making an empty promise that cannot possibly be fulfilled.

The serial killer might be an extreme example, but giving people, or a priest the freedom to make the call as to whether an action they commit is sin or not does not to me seem like a good idea. How do you draw people to the confessional, when at the same time you are telling them, no need to repent?

Telling people that their sin is ok, is not a pastoral approach. It is a lazy way out. It encourages people to turn their intellect inward to themselves rather than upward to God. The way of Christ is not meant to be easy. It wasn't easy for the Apostles it wasn't easy for Christ himself. The times cannot change Christ, or the will of God. If this were true, God would have had no need to purge the world with the flood. Couldn't he have just said, "hey I need to get with the times, the people want this. so its all good." Moses wouldn't have needed the 10 commandments at all, the times and the people had already decided to worship the golden calf. Christ died for our sins to be forgiven not to tell us they are ok. He called us to "go forth and sin no more". The Church does need to change with the times, but the times are tough right now for faith. The times, in my opinion, are calling the Church back to tradition, so as to lead people to Christ vs leaving them to their own devices.

Hard views of Pope Francis from Spectators

Hard views of Pope Francis from Spectators

Fr. Chad Ripperger - Spiritual Warfare - Rochester, NH 10-5-2015

The world needs real freedom, liberation from sin, says Romanian doctor at the synod

The voice of the family blog has posted an excellent speech given by a Romanian Doctor to the synod Fathers.
The world needs real freedom, liberation from sin, says Romanian doctor at the synod

The New Evgengilization

Brian Williams, AKA "The Liturgy Guy" has another excellent recap and analysis of the talk, “The Old Mass and the New Evangelization: Beyond the Long Winter of Rationalism” that I recently linked to here.

In his recap is a wonderful quote by Bishop Athanasius Schneider presents an excellent expression of what I and others have been attempting to say.

"Only on the basis of adoring and glorifying God can the Church adequately proclaim the word of truth, that is, evangelize. … Everything about the liturgy of the Holy Mass must therefore serve to express clearly the reality of Christ’s sacrifice, namely the prayers of adoration, of thanks, of expiation, and of impetration that the eternal High Priest presented to His Father. … How can we call others to convert while, among those doing the calling, no convincing conversion towards God has yet occurred, internally or externally?"

 You can read Brian's full post here: http://liturgyguy.com/2015/09/12/evangelization-and-the-need-for-the-latin-mass/

Lex Orandi, LexCredendi

The Law of Prayer is The Law of Belief. This phrase was used by the Prosper of Aquitaine in the fifth century and the original version goes, "ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi" or "that the law of praying establishes the law of believing. [1]

Some of this may mirror what I have already said in a previous post but I have been reflecting a lot lately on the importance of how I pray, how I teach my kids to pray. Particularly in how I approach the Holy Eucharist and the liturgy. There is no doubt in recent years there has been a lack of good Catholic education in the church. I am not only talking about Sunday school classes, but a whole generation of parents and even priests that have failed to pass on to their children and parishioners even a basic understanding of their Catholic faith. It seems that the bar has been getting people to agree to the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but even that effort has failed for many.

This is why our focus needs to be bringing Catholics back to the true faith. The way to do that is to return sacredness to the liturgy and demand respect for Christ's Presence in the Eucharist. It starts with the priest and bleeds down to the lay person in the pew. The way we pray, is the way we will believe. When the liturgy is approached in a haphazard lighthearted manner, people believe in a haphazard lighthearted manner. The priest at the alter has very specific, careful words and actions that represent the sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross. The same precision does not seem to be required of the people in the pews.

Many take a very hedonistic approach to their faith, words like joy and thanksgiving, overshadow words like reverence and sacrifice. I am not downplaying the importance of joy and thanksgiving, but when those words and phrases are used almost exclusively it brings one to believe that their faith is based on what they get from it and has very little to do with what they give to it. It overshadows the great sacrifice of the Mass and makes us more protestant than Catholic.

I saw this this past weekend. Our family attended a Eucharistic Procession for the 125th anniversary of our diocese. It was a beautiful event and our family was very blessed to be able to participate. I was rather surprised however at how many people (and I include myself here) did not know the proper way to act during the procession, and especially at the benediction that followed. Because so many of us Catholics did not know the proper gestures, when to stand, when to kneel, to enter the room quietly and reverently while the Body of our Lord is on display, the room was generally lost with many people visiting loudly and having to be repeatedly reminded to have respect for Our Lord. The hedonistic approach to faith led many to treat the procession as a skip in the park with Jesus, rather than a solemn possession with Our Lord.

Catholics have almost universally lost their Catechism. While efforts are being made outside of mass to try to draw people back. the truth is that Sunday Mass is the only chance we get to catechize most Catholics. If we use the liturgy to insist on reverence and demand respect in the tone of the Mass, the music, the way Holy Communion is distributed, and insist on adherence to basic etiquette then we will all believe more deeply and reverently.

As a Catholic who was not brought up with strong Catholic teaching (by the time I hit Sunday school it varied very little from what the Lutheran church was teaching up the road) I personally long to be instructed in my faith. I want to hear what I am doing right, but more importantly to hear what I am doing wrong. Christ in the Eucharist is the objective truth of our faith, because of that we need to be strong in defending Him. If we insist on a reverent attitude we are not insulting but instructing.

That is one of the things that I love about the Traditional Latin Mass. The structure of that liturgy is such that it insists on reverence, and focuses on sacrifice. It brings unity to the faith not by hand holding but by standing together with the priest looking to the Lord. There is very little room for self interpretation and for me is a perfect example of lex orandi, lex credendi. When you look at those families that almost exclusively attend that form of the Mass you notice something right away. There is a definite difference in the way they live the rest of their lives outside of church. The way they pray permeates into the way they believe and becomes the way they live. If we wonder how we can bring that kind of faith back into our Catholic Church we only need to look as far as those churches that have successfully done it. It isn't by allowing peoples' personal beliefs about God and happiness to dictate the Catechism of the Church but by allowing the Catechism of the Church to permeate peoples beliefs. When we stand up for Christ the King and insist on proper prayer, then those actions manifest in a stronger belief, and that belief then spreads beyond the walls of the church.




1. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/word-of-god/upload/lex-orandi-lex-credendi.pdf

The Old Mass and the New Evangelization

Peter Kwasniewski has a good article over at OnePeterFive titled 'The Old Mass and the New Evangelization'. The Title immediately caught my eye. To me sometimes when I hear the word evangelization in the Church, the people saying it tend to lean toward attempting to evangelize outsiders into the Church by making the Church seem more protestant and less Catholic. By attempting to change the image of the Church to one of agreeing with the common social ideas that they perceive as being the reason why people are staying away from the Church. These are the same people within the Church that applaud any hint at the idea of the Church accepting gay marriage, divorce, birth control and abortion. This style of evangelization aims to bring people to a church that has lost her core.

I have often thought the best place to start evangelization is within the walls of the Church. Let's first evangelize Catholics and bring them back to the Catholic faith. The current statistic is something like 70% of Catholics do not believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, many Catholics have looked to loose teaching through the years to decide their own definition of what is sin and what is not. For example; how many Catholics know it is a mortal sin to miss Church on Sunday? And, if those Catholics are told that, how many know that you are not supposed to take Holy Communion if you are in a state of mortal sin? And, of those, how many actually care? 

We have a crisis of faith inside of our Catholic Church, one that is going to require strong leaders who are willing to stand up and tell us we are wrong. To lead us like sheep and tell us how we should act, what is pleasing to God. To let us know when we do something that in any way questions our reverence to Christ in the Eucharist. That is the type of evengelization that I believe we need. Evangelization back to what it means to be Catholic. What it means to be moral, and why the Church will always accept the sinner, but can never ever accept the sin. 

That is why this article caught my eye, as the Latin Mass becomes more prevalent, as our Priests start demanding a more reverent approach to regular Sunday mass, people in my opinion will respond by standing up. We all want to please God, but due to a lack of good Catholic teaching over the last fifty years many of us don't know how to properly. We are losing what it is to be Catholic to a more protestant  approach to our faith. It seems that many worry that too strict approach to the "rules" of the church will drive away those Catholics that do still attend mass. If we ignore those "rules" though, what do those remaining Catholics have to hold on to? 

The full article can be read here; 'The Old Mass and the New 

Evangelization'

Being lead by the machine

Who are we allowing to lead our thoughts and motivate our actions? We are surrounded by media, we have 24/7 access to more TV shows and movies than we can possible watch in a lifetime. The new fad in TV is the idea of binge watching. The act of sitting in front of the television for a day at a time and watching every episode of a TV show. I can admit that I enjoy this habit very much. To just sit and turn off the brain and be entertained. I wonder though when I do it what it costs my mind and my intellect? At the same time we all sit and absorb massive amounts of media, we are telling ourselves that we, as a society, as a planet, as humans, are smarter, more refined and tolerant than we ever have been in the past.

The problem with that belief is that it isn't actually true. The majority of the planet sits and absorbs information told to them by invisible people behind the media. We do not know their values, their beliefs, their qualifications, well wait, we do know their beliefs and values and we know they are not ours, but we sit and watch anyway because they present to us a compelling story. They are story tellers of the finest caliber. They present a story to us so entertaining that we ignore the fact that it is wrapped in sin and speaks against what God would want for our lives.

What are the primary qualities that make for a good television show or movie? Pride, Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth. How many shows have you seen that present their main characters with these qualities and yet somehow simultaneously present them as enduring and lovable. Their sin is a personality quirk that makes for entertaining TV. Also how often are their Contrary virtues Humility, Liberality, Chastity, Meekness, Temperance, Brotherly Love, Diligence, presented as the punchline?

We have come to the point where most people have given up on intellect and reason all together. We are all to happy to be lead down whatever road the media chooses to lead us. The more we immerse ourselves in the media the faster we allow ourselves to be lead. The recent turmoil over gay marriage and the rapid public opinion shift is further evidence or this. In just a few short years we have gone from the the majority of Americans disagreeing with gay marriage, to the the majority supporting it. In fact in the same time those of us who do oppose it have been painted as ignorant and bigots standing in the way of true love. If we continue on this road it is my prediction that within a couple of years at most we will have seen the supreme court call the Catholic church a promoter of hate crimes for opposing the practice.

We need to hold fast to our intellect and that will mean disconnecting ourselves from the constant stream of information that is contrary to basic thought. It is time to go out and look for ourselves. I am not suggesting total abstinence from things like the internet. Certainly it can be a valuable tool for acquiring needed information. For example all of the documents published directly by the Vatican. What we need to be cautious of however is allowing others to interpret the source information and feed us fiction as fact. Even in regard to TV shows, which we should know are obvious fiction, we find that the facts they present, as to how family life should be lived, how men and women should interact, what we should consider important, all slowly erode away our intellect until we are left thinking that those things seem logical.

Eventually what this leads to is a desire to learn more but the process has become to tedious, we are too accustomed to the news outlets, sit coms, dramatic TV series, internet sites; all providing our ideas for us. So it becomes more and more difficult to abandon those things that have so long kept our minds at a minimal functioning level, and convinced us because we are mass consumers of false information that we are in fact brilliant with an IQ far and above the average person.

It is time to stick our heads above the water and look around. In the constant onslaught of information, TV, internet there is one prevalent theme, it is mostly, very, anti-Christian and anti-Catholic. It is cleverly disguised, and the stories they tell are very entertaining, but how much are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of a good story? How much are we willing to let go of?

Will you die for Him?

I don't mean to continue to only post links, but I found this post particularly expressive for two reasons. One it is very clearly outlines the dangers of acceptance of sin and how quickly a population of people can be diluted into accepting it. The other reason is it calls to mind the struggle that I find myself faced with on a weekly basis and that is this; at what point do we walk away from the modern Church to retreat to a more traditional parish where we can properly express the reverence and love for Christ in a way that doesn't try to force us into clapping and singing and dancing in the pews?

http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/1870-will-you-die-for-him-a-sermon-on-the-eve-of-persecution-in-america

St. John the Baptist: Martyr for Marriage

OnePeterFive has a good article on John the Baptist.

It is easy to look at the martyrs of the past and think, that can't happen today. We live in the United States of America and have freedom of religion. We are lured into the false sense of confidence that there is nothing to stand up for anymore. That because we can openly go to church on Sunday that we are free to act and behave morally.

The article is a good reminder that John the Baptist did not die directly for his devotion to Jesus, but because of his adherence to the sixth commandment. St. John the Baptist was murdered because he stood up in defense of Marriage.

We find ourselves living in similar times now, Catholics are being persecuted, called bigots, painted as intolerant all because of our adherence to the sixth commandment. So much so that many have given into the temptation and the persecution in order that they may appear tolerant to the rest of society. Our Catholic faith is under attack, we are being asked to accept sin, to ignore it, not to invite the sinner back into the flock, as we so much want to do, but to invite the sin into the flock. There is a big difference between the two.

http://www.onepeterfive.com/st-john-the-baptist-martyr-for-marriage/

God Is Love

"God is Love" I know that seems obvious. But it isn't. We throw around the word love very loosely. We use it to define our relationships with God, people and things. I wonder though how many of us really understand God's love the way we think we do, and how many of us are truly able to incorporate that into the way we love. I think for many we think of love as something that we receive. A happy feeling stemming from the knowledge that their is a person, that will take us as we are, regardless of our own failings and faults. Jesus did teach us what love is, and how to love and it had little to do with what we receive from it.

There is a story in Matthew 15:21-28 of a Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus to ask for his help in healing her daughter from demons. The story sticks in my mind because it is contrary to, I think, the way many of us want to look at our faith, and Jesus. It is comforting to to think of God, father and Son, as always there for us. Willing to do anything for us that we ask without actually requiring much in return from us. I think that is a common way of looking at God and love in general. It is likely one of the reasons that the divorce rate is so high. People say, I love this person, but only as long as I receive good feelings from them. I want the benefit without it really requiring much work from me. Back to the Canaanite woman. She came to Jesus and asked Him for help, and His first response was, to completely ignore her. Then she continue to follow Him and beg, and he told her, basically "I am not here for you, go away." At first glance this isn't the all loving all accepting Jesus that we like to wrap ourselves in. The woman continues to come to him, and the last time Jesus says to her, "It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs." So this woman, came to Jesus three times, and each time he insulted her progressively worse, the final time calling her a "dog." Surely at this point most of us would say, this Man doesn't love me, in fact he Hates me, the heck with him. The woman however did not anger, and asked that as a dog she be allowed to eat the scraps from his table. At this Jesus told her, "woman, great is your faith, let it be done as you wish"

The reason I like this story so much is I think Jesus' message in this verse tells us as much about the way he wants us to love as it does about the faith he wants us to live. This woman loved as Jesus taught us to love even before he had clearly sent the message. This to me is why her faith was great, not necessarily because she believed beyond doubt that Jesus could heal her daughter, but that she continued to hold Him high and have faith when it seemed he had none in her. Ultimately Jesus would very clearly teach us what it means to love. He denied the woman three times, each progressively worse and she continued to love Him. We would do the same to Jesus, we would beat him, mock him, and crucify him, yet He continued to love us. Even Peter would deny Him three times, and still Jesus would suffer and die for us. Jesus' to me had mercy on the woman, because she had learned his message of love even before he had fully taught it. 

I hear people say repeatedly that God is Love. But the love they are talking about is not the love we give to God but the good feeling of love that we get from him. We bask in it, this feeling of love that we are forgiven, that Jesus is there for us. We hardly want to acknowledge that that love came with a price, that we need to ask for forgiveness.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says,"Love one another as I have loved you", How did He love us? How did we love him? We spat on Him, we denied knowing Him, we scourged him, we crowned him with thorns, we teased Him, made fun of Him, taunted Him, then we killed him by nailing Him to the Cross. Jesus washed our feet. healed our sick, made us wine, endured the scourging, the teasing, the thorns, the Nails. Then he asked God the Father to forgive us.

Jesus taught us how to love. Love is not the feeling your get, it is the feeling you give. Love is sacrifice, love is service, love is doing those things when the person you are loving doesn't get it, want it or appreciate it. Jesus, knows we are not perfect, but His love can make us perfect. His forgiveness is perfect and when we ask for it in the sacrament of confession we are given it no questions asked and so through Jesus made perfect. This is the example of love that we should give to our spouses and children.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the feeling of God's love. I bask in the wonderful feeling of having been forgiven after confession, or sitting in adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I enjoy more than anything the feeling of love I get when I am looking at my wife. I am not talking about the greatness of being loved but the greater joy of loving. If we base our relationship with God, or our spouse on the feeling we get, there will come a day when it feels dry, or absent. There will come a day when saying the rosary feels more tedious, and it seems like a lot of work to get to church. And what happens when we say that prayer, that it seems Jesus just will not answer? When we ask for healing for a loved one, and they die, when we need help and seemingly he allows us to suffer anyway? In those moments, if we have built our faith on that good feeling we get, when it goes away we will most certainly fail. We will look to replace the good feelings we used to feel while praying or going to church with pleasures of the world. We will look for happiness on TV, on the internet, in movies and games and lose sight of  what God is calling us to do.

That is why it is so important we look to the example that Jesus has given us. He has given us the foundation for a solid and unshakable faith, in Him. It is to exercise purely selfless love. That is how Jesus loves us, and that is how he has commanded us to "love one another." Jesus is love, he loved us to the point of death, he loved us even though we showed him very little love in return. I pray that every time I say the words "I love you" that they will represent that commitment from me, to love to the point of death regardless of my own comfort, and also that every time I hear the words "I love you" that I will not take that commitment and sacrifice for granted by only taking those great feelings and leaving nothing in return. That my faith will be based on my desire to serve Christ and not be served by him. Too often I think we take for granted the sacrifice of the Cross, and the ease with with Christ offers forgiveness. Let our faith not be based as much on the feelings we receive as much as the commitment we give.

The danger in basing our love for God or each other on the feelings we receive from the knowledge that we are loved unconditionally, is that sooner or later we start to test the bounds of that unconditional love. We will come to church in jeans, because we know Jesus loves us unconditionally. We will risk missing Church, because God will still be there next week. We will progressively reduce our reverence in front of the Cross to little more than a casual visit and a chance to socialize with others. That is why our love needs to be active. We need to take Christ's commandment and challenge ourselves to show love, not just receive it. How would you dress for church if your intention was to show your love for Christ in the most meaningful way I could. How will I approach the alter to receive the Blessed Sacrament, with the knowledge that I am physically approaching Christ in the fullness of His sacrifice? That sacrifice that demonstrates in the clearest possible way that God is Love.

Our Lady of Fatima

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, where 98 years ago our Holy Mother appeared to three Shepard children.

The Fatima Crusader Network has an excellent free eBook available if you would like to lean more.

http://www.fatima.org/crusader/truestory/truestorytoc.asp

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. We are fortunate to have a priest that offers the traditional Mass in our parish once a month and yesterday was it. I thought the readings were especially relevant to Mother's yesterday so I thought I would share them here.

LESSON James 1:22-27
Beloved: But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself and went his way and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.

Mothers in general, and in particular those Catholic mothers that choose to sacrifice, time, wealth, social interaction, and to often respect, in the name of their families live this lesson to the fullest. I think of my wife, who in our family is the doer of the work. She lives her faith through the calling that she has accepted and by that example gives strength to our whole family. She is not a "forgetful hearer" but truly a doer of the work. She puts her whole self into our family so that our family will be strong, mentally, spiritually and physically.

We cannot as families "deceive our hearts". It is not an easy path to choose motherhood as a career. While fifty years ago families were held strong by society, and mothers were encouraged and supported in that choice, today is a very different story. We as a society put more value on career outside the home and a paycheck and take seem to take more self worth and value from the opinions of near strangers that we encounter in the workplace than we do our own families. We put more value on our work place relationships than we do on our family relationships. To me this is the deception mentioned in the Lesson. We are deceiving ourselves if we think we will be judged in anyway on the amount of money we made, or the size of house we live in or if we retire at fifty instead of sixty-five. A mother that chooses to give her life to her family is truly living without deception. Setting aside the opinions of man, for faithfulness in God.

How can we call ourselves faithful Catholic husbands if we don't hold our wives in the highest regard? If we don't look at motherhood as one of the highest callings?

GOSPEL John 16:23-30
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto, you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. "These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father. In that day, you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world: again I leave the world and I go to the Father." 
His disciples say to him: "Behold, now thou speakest plainly and speakest no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Our priest in his homily yesterday asked us to consider, "when you ask something of God are you truly asking in Jesus' name or are you asking in your name?" I think this relates back to the previous lesson, how often do we deceive our hearts into believing that what we desire for ourselves is what God desires for us? Why does is seem so easy for us to look at Catholic teaching and say, well this applies to me, but not so much this, and when I am in Church I will believe but when I leave Church my life belongs to me. We are deceiving ourselves to think that God is with us any less on Tuesday afternoon than he is on Sunday morning. Which brings me back around to the calling of motherhood. A calling is exactly what it is to be a mother and to choose to dedicate your life to your family. It takes a remarkably strong person to make that choice and live that life.

Mothers give their children their first stories of Jesus, they will be the ones to show them right from wrong. They will be the loving embrace when their child falls and skins their knee, and they will be the bad guy when their teenagers are testing their limits. They guide their family's toward Christ. A mother's prayer for her children is truly prayed in Jesus' name. Being a mother is the most selfless calling. Putting aside all comfort for the sake of her family. Loving her children from babies, to toddlers, to teenagers and off into adulthood. 

Family is at the very center of our Catholic faith and Mothers are at the very center of the family. We look to our Holy Mother Mary for guidance and support in times of need. We ask Her to intercede for us to her Son because we know the value God has placed in Mary and in motherhood. We as Catholics should take that example. If we keep our wives strong and give them the support they need to live their calling, we will keep our families strong and strong families will keep the Catholic faith. 

Catholic Families

This last Tuesday we celebrated our daughter Isabella's birthday. She would be 15 years old. It was fifteen years ago, and she was with us for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes outside the womb, but I can still remember those minutes, and the days before and after as if they were yesterday. Anyone who has suffered a loss like that can tell you, the pain is never more than a day away. At first the pain is unbearable, and you wonder if it will ever go away. Then you worry that it will go away. Thank God it never does go away. As every year goes by there are still those moments when you remember and you get every precious minute back. In those moments the pain and the tears become a comfort. They are my memories of our precious Isabella and I think to lose them would be to lose a piece of her. Even today I look back, and it seems like it was minutes ago, or yesterday at the furthest.

We didn't know it going through the pregnancy but found out shortly before her birth that Isabella had Down Syndrome. People have asked us since, "if you knew early on, would you have kept her?" As if to say, if we had known early enough, we could have killed her before we became to attached to spare us the pain of her dying. When I look at families of children with down syndrome, rarely do I see happier people or happier children. They truly know what it is to love, and be loved as Jesus taught us to love. In fifteen minutes Isabella made it so perfectly clear to me when Jesus said "love one another as I have loved you" The lesson that love is what you give and not what you get. Children, especially those with special needs are a gift from God and welcoming them into our homes is a core foundation of the Catholic Church. It is build into our wedding vows and a promise we make at the alter before God.

We live in a disturbing time when it is acceptable in subsequent pregnancies, for the Doctor to ask, "Do you want to test for Down Syndrome? You would still go through with the pregnancy if the test came back positive?" Of course being Catholic the answer is an unequivocal "yes." but at the same time there is an underlying pressure to just quietly believe without coming out as to judgmental.  We live our Catholic beliefs but are pressured to keep them in the Church. At least we have always been able to say the Church stands up for us as a family. The Catholic Church believes in families, They encourage those of us who choose to have large families, and reserves a place of high honor and respect for those mothers who choose the vocation of motherhood and dedicate their lives to staying at home and raising the next generation of strong Catholics.

That is why the recent remarks of Pope Francis when he stated that Catholics need not "breed like rabbits" hit a raw nerve for those Catholic families that have chosen a more difficult path for the sake of their faith. The comment rocked a foundation of belief that even through the world at large may not appreciate or hold sacred the role of family, the Catholic church did. The comment gives fuel to the fire for those who want to weaken the Church's stance on everything from marriage to abortion. Catholics and families are under attack. Morality is being mutated by society into bigotry. There is, sadly, a sigh of relief from many "Catholics" when the pope makes those comments. There is a faction in the Catholic church that wants to change Catholicism to make it new, make it fit more with society. Society doesn't dictate what is right and wrong through. That can only come from God. We look to the Church to establish and hold fasts those fundamental truths. Morality can't be subjective left to be interpreted by the individual. Feeling something is right, cannot make it right.

I have heard commented by our priests many times, don't take the headline of what Pope Francis says at face value, go to the source and read the statement look at the bigger picture. So when I heard that comment, that is what I did, and sure enough the Pope did back off his statements in a clear way. Oddly, it was the SSPX news website this time that clarified the pope's view on large families. A group that is often criticized and labeled as sedevacantists and schismatics (they're not) were the ones to come to the defense of Catholic families, the Pope, and the Catholic Church. Meanwhile our own diocesan newspaper unfortunately only reported on the original comments in an article that was borderline favorable and encouraging of those unfortunate comments.

In comments to the Italian bishop’s newspaper Avvenire, Vatican Archbishop Giovanni Becciu said, “The Pope is truly sorry” that his remarks about large families “caused such disorientation.” Archbishop Becciu said the pope “absolutely did not want to disregard the beauty and the value of large families.” (SSPX)

The Pope also went on to make reparations for his comments is his General Audience on January, 21 when he stated "It gives me consolation and hope to see so many large families that welcome children as a true gift from God.”

I am grateful for those families and priests that stand up to defend family. The Catholic Church is rooted in our families, we teach our kids by example, priests, and nuns and saints start off as children in Catholic families. If we are going to win the war on morality it has to start in our families, leading through example. Please continue to pray for our Catholic families.

Why We Dress Up for Church

Not long ago there was a billboard for a non-Catholic church on the main Street in our town. The billboard proudly proclaimed, "These are my Sunday Clothes" and pictured a man in jeans, a t-shirt and a leather coat. I remember wondering why is it that it is such a draw to show up for church so casually.
Not long after I was having a conversation with some friends, who as it happens are also not Catholic. The topic of Sunday dress had come up and they also proudly proclaimed that they show up dressed just as they were that weekend. Shorts, tshirt, jeans, whatever they were wearing for the rest of the day. Their reason for this being acceptable was they were pretty sure that "Jesus didn't care how they dressed"
Even in our Catholic churches you do not have to look far to find this casual attitude toward attire. It is a popular position to take Jesus as our best friend, who takes us as we are. My friends that weekend did not care what I was wearing, I didn't care what they were wearing, so why does Jesus care what I decide to wear to church?
The answer could be, He just might not actually care, but I think the more appropriate question is why don't we care? Jesus does want us, sinner and all. Jesus will take us as we are. He wants us to come to Him regardless of what we are wearing I am sure. It should however maybe occur to us to ask ourselves what Jesus gave so that He could take us as we are. During this time of lent we are reminded more than ever of the sacrifice that He made for us. As Catholics we witness that sacrifice every Sunday and stand in His true presence. He died a horrible death after being tortured for my sins, for everyone's. He died because he knew I was not good enough, He died so He could take me as I am.
When I go to a funeral, even for someone I don't know well, I dress up. I wear my Sunday best. I also notice at a funeral 98% of people do the same. We dress up out of respect for the life of the person that has just died. We dress up to say, "your life meant something to me." We are capable of showing respect through our dress for strangers. We dress up for work, we dress up for a night out, we dress up for a funeral. Why should Jesus deserve any less from me? He has given me the chance of eternal life. How can I show up in jeans or shorts an say, "hey bud, must have sucked being up on that cross."
Dressing up for church also demonstrates to my family, and the rest of the world that we are going to Church on Sunday. That is our destination. We are not stopping at church on the way to a bbq. We are not going to the football game but have to make an appearance at church first. We are going to Church. We are going to show our reverence for the sacredness that is the Mass. Dressing up is an outward sign that we can give to show our respect and gratitude for Christ on the cross.
When we show up for church dressed casually there is a tendency to have a casualness toward the Mass. When we show up casually we remove the sacred from the Mass. When we remove the sacred from the Mass, we ignore the sacrifice. The Mass then becomes for us at best a symbolic meal rather than a sacred act.
I have been to many churches, traditional churches, where the priests preach continuously on the importance of dress and modesty in our display of reverence toward the Lord. I am always grateful when I am asked outright if I feel I am giving Christ all the devotion He deserves. Even outside of Church, our kids recently were sent home a letter addressing proper dress for band students at a concert. The letter explicitly listed appropriate dress for men and women to wear for the concert and also explicitly listed, that leggings are not pants for women and will not be allowed.
If we are required to wear pants for something as simple as a band concert shouldn't we asked to do the same for Mass?
That is why we dress up for Church, that is why my wife and I ask our kids to dress up for Church. The Mass should stand apart from our daily routine. We should prepare ourselves to have to go there. The act of dressing up for Mass, as well as the act of changing into more casual clothes after Mass, very clearly marks for me and my family that we have just been somewhere important. That we have just been to see Someone important. Christ deserve something more from me than I give the rest of the world. His sacrifice deserves my outward appreciation and dressing up for Mass is one way I can display that respect to my family.

The Holy League | Joining Forces in a Spirit of Marian Chivalry

Cardinal Burke has recently released a video introducing an exciting new initiative

The Holy League | Joining Forces in a Spirit of Marian Chivalry


Here is the video

The Feast of Saint Joseph

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Joseph. As a father and a husband Saint Joseph has always been a source of inspiration. If you want to look for guidance in how to be a Catholic husband and father who better to look to than the head of the Holy Family himself.

Saint Joseph is the model of love and faith in your spouse and God. We accept as Catholics the truth of the immaculate conception, but I wonder if any of us can really put ourselves into the shoes of Joseph? I am not sure what my reaction would be if just before my marriage my wife would have come to me and said " I have something to tell you, I'm pregnant, but don't worry I didn't cheat on you, it's God's baby." I like to believe I have some level of faith, but, at that point, I would have likely said, "oooookay, well I am going to go over here now and call the guys in the white coats. "

We know that Saint Joseph did perhaps have that initial reaction, but even in his first reaction we see his love for Mary. The bible tells us his reaction was to quietly divorce her. Here is Joseph, likely reeling because he knows that Mary is pregnant, and he also knows the baby is not his. At this point he has two choices, 1. he can out Mary, embarrass her, have her punished (which would likely be stoning) or 2. He can quietly divorce her walk away. Which is what he plans to do. To the rest of the world Joseph will forever look like the biggest jerk in history, walking out on his pregnant wife. But his love for Mary is so great, even though at the moment he is feeling betrayed, not yet having knowledge of God's plan for his family, he still chooses to protect her. To care for her. I think it is probably because of this instinct in Joseph that God granted him such an incredible vocation. To be the protector of Jesus and Mary. Even before the angel came to him, acting only on his love for Mary, his instinct is protection of her.

Then the angel comes to him in a dream and reveals the truth to him. At that moment when he wakes from his dream Joseph fully accepts his vocation.  He will be the husband Mary deserves, he will be the earthly father to Jesus. He will provide for and protect them at all costs. I think this is why Joseph is called the "terror of demons." What chance does a demon have against the man charged with the earthly protection of the Son of God? The man charged with the protection of the Mother of God?

This is such an expression of a man's love and trust in his wife and God. He has no reason to believe Mary, or trust his dream. He has all the evidence that he should divorce her. All outward appearances say, she is lying to him. Yet with full faith in God and in Mary he trusts her completely. He trusts in God completely.

Because of his faith, his trust and protection Joseph is considered the Greatest Saint, after Jesus and Mary, he was granted the great honor of dying with Mary and Jesus at his side. It is because of this honor he is the Patron Saint of Death.

We often offer a prayer to Saint Joseph in our house. I will share it here. You can say a Novena to him as well by offering this prayer for 9 mornings in a row and publishing it. I can vouch for the power of this prayer and I know there are many times when the Terror of Demons, the protector of the Holy Family, has given his protection to my family as well.

Oh, St. Joseph,
whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt
before the throne of God,
I place in you all my interests and desires.
Oh, St. Joseph,
do assist me by your powerful intercession,
and obtain for me from thy Divine Son
all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power,
I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to thee most Loving of Fathers.
Oh, St. Joseph,
I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms;
I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.
Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me and
Ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departed souls - pray for me.
Amen.

Motherhood’s Trials: a Means of Redemption

We ran across this article the other day. There are no words to express how grateful I am for my wife. She has given us so much at her own expense.  She is the most amazing person I have ever met.

Motherhood’s Trials: a Means of Redemption

This article touches on what motherhood really means and how oftentimes in our society, those who choose to dedicate their life to it are not given the respect and honor they so richly deserve.

Saint Patrick's Day

Being Catholic

I am starting this blog in an effort to try to be a better Catholic. Not just on Sundays but every day of the week. We live in a world where there is constant distraction, sometimes I think intentional distraction, away from God. We work, shop, run kids around, clean the house, rake the yard, watch TV, and then collapse into bed at night to just in time to wake up and do it all again the next day.
Pretty soon I find myself in Church on Sunday, feeling a closeness with God that I had completely overlooked the entire week. This blog will be my effort to try to focus my thoughts on Catholic ideas and teachings on more than just Sunday.

I am not a theologian or anywhere near a Catholic scholar. I am a Catholic lay person who wants to know more about my Catholic faith and grow it. I have found that I am at times frustrated by the current state of our Catholic church. It sometimes feels to me as if Catholics have forgotten how to be Catholic. When I think of going into a Catholic church, I think of going into a place of reverence, a place of respect. After all the Catholic church is the only church I can enter and actually physically be in the real and true presence of Jesus Christ.

There was a time in the Church that people seemed to know that. That when you went up to the alter to receive the communion, you would fall on your knees in awe of being in the true presence of God. That an alter server would carefully place a paten under your chin as you received the body of Christ by mouth. By mouth because as a Catholic you felt unworthy to touch the hem of His robe, let alone handle the body of Christ. And the tray under you chin because of the slight possibility that any fragment of the real and true body and blood of Christ should fall to the floor.

That is the kind of Catholic I want to be. One that is always aware of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, for my wife, for my kids and for everyone. I find it difficult sometimes during Mass to focus my attention on Christ. Even going up to take Holy Communion seems so casual, we are encouraged to take by the hand, and move as quickly as possible, and what if I wanted to fall to my knees? to display awe and reverence as I receive Holy Communion? Our Churches are not set up for that. I would hold up the line, someone may trip over me, people would think, "look at that weirdo kneeling to receive communion!"

I am not writing this to stand on my pulpit and look on people or the church in judgement. I am sharing this because I want more from my Catholic faith. I want to be challenged to be a better Catholic and sometimes it seems like we are deliberately not challenged to be better Catholics. So my purpose in writing this is solely to challenge myself and my family to be better Catholics. To be Catholic every day. I will try to pick topics, on family, modesty, and every day Catholic life. Maybe someday someone might even read them.