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Friday, May 27, 2016

Love, Humility, Abandonment

If, in life, you reach who you really are, at the end of life -- at the conclusion of this earthly journey -- everything will fall into place. The first person you will meet upon dying will be your true self.
"This means to grow towards the Glory to come and the beauty which is destined for us," noted a religious named Sister Emmanuel, who penned the book on Maria Simma, the mystic who saw souls.
"Each minute, we can still grow in love, but the souls in purgatory can no longer grow. Even the angels envy us this power we have to grow each minute in love while we are on earth. Each little act of love we offer to the Lord, each little sacrifice or fast, each little privation or battle against our tendencies, our faults, each little forgiveness of our enemies, all the things we can offer of this sort, will be later for us an ornament, a jewel, a real treasure for eternity.
"So let us seize every opportunity to be as beautiful as God desires us to be already in His prescience. If we saw in its full light the splendor of a pure soul, of a soul purified, then we would cry for joy and wonder, because of its beauty!
"A human soul is something of great splendor before God; this is why God desires us to be perfectly pure. It is not by being faultless in our ways that we will become pure. No, it is through our repentance of our sins, and our humility. You see, it's quite different! The saints are not 'faultless' souls, but those who get up again and again each time they fall, and ask forgiveness."
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Sunday, May 22, 2016

Holy League

A friend in New Hampshire named Tom contacted me to tell me that he and another are establishing a Holy League in response to this call from Cardinal Burke.

This is intended to create a network of parish based men’s groups that meet monthly in a structured Holy Hour. The Holy League was first formed as part of the call to holiness and fortitude that occurred when Europe was under threat from Islamic forces and prior to the battle of Lepanto in 1571. The aim is to reestablish this in every Catholic parish.

The website tells us that the Holy League:
  • Provides a Holy Hour format which incorporates Eucharistic Adoration, prayer, short spiritual reflections, the availability of the Sacrament of Confession, Benediction and fraternity.
  • Encourages consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Purest Heart of Joseph.
  • Promotes the Precepts and Sacraments of the Church, especially through devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament and the praying of the Most Holy Rosary.
  • Creates a unified front, made up of members of the Church Militant, for spiritual combat.
Link

Saturday, May 14, 2016

History of Catholic Schools

One of the great struggles in the Church today is effectively catechizing God’s people. In a world so full of error, distortion, and half-truths, this has never been more necessary. I was asked recently to present my thoughts on this topic at a conference. I did so from the perspective not only of a pastor but also of one who grew up at the end of the era of the “old Church” and through the cultural revolution of late 1960s. Today’s post is the first part of my presentation at the conference; I’ll be posting the remainder over the next several days. (See “Here's How to Help Fix the 4 Big Mistakes We've Made With Catechesis”.)
Many approaches and experiments in catechesis have been tried over the past several decades and, frankly, all have ultimately failed. Though we need to try something new, that something new is really something old. We must go back to basics and tell the old stories again, within the family environment rather than just at the parish level.
In this first part of this article I’d like to reflect on four failed models of the past. I do not refer to specific programs, but more to some of the educational philosophes that underlie our practices then and now.
I. The professional class
At some point, especially in the immigrant years of Catholicism in this country, the task of catechesis shifted from the family and the culture experience of the home to a kind of “professional” class of teachers, largely priests and religious sisters.
In this system, religious education was almost always conducted away from the home. It took place in Catholic schools, which were being built in huge numbers in those years and staffed by ample numbers of religious nuns and brothers. In a largely Protestant culture, which also dominated in the public schools, the building of Catholic schools was considered a high priority for Catholics. Parents were strongly encouraged to enroll their children in Catholic schools.
Catholic schools and C.C.D. (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) programs were remarkably effective, well-staffed, and well-attended in the immigrant years of the first half of the 20th century and well into the 1970s.
Religious education and upbringing became a task largely conducted away from the home. Children either attended Catholic school, or if that was not possible, went to C.C.D. classes (established to educate children who attended secular schools). The point was that the education of children in the faith was entrusted to professional religious educators, priests, sisters, and some lay teachers.
Link

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Bodily Healing

Praying deeply to bring health in our bodies
[adapted from The God of Healing]
The deeper we pray, the more we can focus on every part of the body, and ask the Holy Spirit to protect and heal our brains, ears, necks, lymph glands, throats (for the throat call on Saint Blaise), blood vessels, hearts, lungs (for the respiratory tract, Saint Bernardine), eyes (Saint Lucy), stomachs, intestines, colons, reproductive organs, breasts (for breasts, Saint Agatha), joints, and skin. [Here are thirty saints for common ailments].
Throughout life, our cells, tissues, and organs take a beating from the environment, bad nutrition, and simple age, so it's wise to go through one's life and pray to rectify potential health problems.
Also, pray you do not somaticize: let your fears and emotions manifest as physical affliction.
God is the Great Physician and each cell comes from the life force of His Spirit.
That Force can heal anyone of anything.
One must cooperate by casting away resentment, unforgiveness, and anger -- which also wear on our organs -- and so start a journey to health by going through a review of life and loving anyone we have not loved and forgiving everyone we have not forgiven, including ourselves.
Pray. Meditate on Scripture. Listen.
Ask Jesus to "reverse the clock."
Let's say you smoked: go back, ask the Lord to forgive you for smoking, cast out spirits that may be associated with nicotine, and ask Him to pervade your lungs with healing. "Soak" yourself in holiness.
Cast out spirits of "tobacco" and "addiction."
When you're pure inside, entities are not comfortable; Jesus called them "unclean spirits"; foul does not mesh with clean.
Your angels are there. Saint Raphael will come. If you drank too much, focus on your liver. If you ate the wrong things, focus on your colon (and stomach), if obese, cast out the spirit of gluttony. If there is a genetic weakness, ask the Lord to reconfigure your genes.
Do a life review of your health and pray over each organ, looking for blotches that may cause future problems, for the non-physical transmits to the physical and it is Grace that heals through deliverance. Look at how many times Christ cast out demons and unclean spirits before the healing took place!
If you have jealousy, this could produce bile (bitterness). If you're angry, you harden your heart (and its vessels; "Harden not your heart," Psalm 95:8). If you reject yourself, you may have acne. If your heart oozes "gall," go back through your life and neutralize this acid. (An acidic system is more prone to cancer.) If you've failed to forgive you may be attached in a "sick way" to whomever you have not forgiven.
It is often the spiritual garbage inside of us that attracts the "flies" that can carry disease and fester within.
Saint Teresa of Avila said (about the Light that gives us life) "it is not a radiance which dazzles, but a soft whiteness and an infused radiance which, without wearying the eyes, causes them the greatest delight; nor are they wearied by the brightness which they are seeing in this Divine beauty.
"So different from any earthly light is the brightness and light now revealed to the eyes that, by comparison with it, the brightness of our sun seems quite dim and we should never want to open our eyes again for the purpose of seeing it. It is as if we were to look at a very clear stream, in a bed of crystal, reflecting the sun's rays."
It's when we allow that light to dim or blur that trouble and breakdown begin.
God is the Great Physician. In deep quiet listen for Him. He reverses the curse; He reverses the letters in "evil" and turns them back into "live." 
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Monday, May 2, 2016

The Male Only Sanctuary

Several things immediately differentiate Lincoln from nearly every other diocese in the country when it comes to the sacred liturgy. 
To a large extent, Lincoln has preserved a male only sanctuary. In this area the diocese has simply given more weight to tradition and common sense instead of “modern sensibilities” that are more secular minded.
The diocese remains the only one in the country to maintain an altar serving policy of boys only. As I have written about before, this is in direct recognition of what Rome itself acknowledged back in 1994:
The Holy See wishes to recall that it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar. As is well known, this has led to a reassuring development of priestly vocations. Thus the obligation to support such groups of altar boys will always continue.
Lincoln also utilizes installed acolytes and lectors for the Holy Mass. Since it is an instituted ministry, the role of an acolyte is only open to men. Both of these instituted ministries commenced during Bishop Flavin’s time during the 1970’s.
As an example, a parish with 1,200 or so families could have as many as 30-40 acolytes. They function mainly in a capacity to serve during Mass, often much like an altar boy or deacon: they turn the missal pages for the priest, carry the processional cross, distribute communion, handle the thurifer for incensing, and so on.
These acolytes are utilized on an as needed basis and are not viewed as simply another way to increase lay participation. An average Sunday mass with 800 people would typically have only 2 main acolytes and 3 more assist the extra priest to distribute Holy Communion. It’s also interesting to note that the faithful only receive under one species in Lincoln, foregoing the need to double the number of acolytes. This is of course in stark contrast to most dioceses that make ordinary use of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, to the point of abusing the intention set forth by Rome.
As stated previously, Lincoln also utilizes installed lectors for most Sunday Masses. Back in the early 1980’s Bishop Rembert Weakland (the progressive homosexual prelate of Milwaukee at the time) publicly chastised Bishop Flavin of Lincoln for not embracing the innovation of female readers for Mass. While Flavin’s successor Bishop Bruskewitz would eventually acquiesce and permit their use in the diocese, female readers are still more commonly utilized for daily masses and school masses, with lectors more prevalent for Sunday’s and holy days of obligation.
Link