Here is a mega list of Christian blogs.

Here is a mega list of Christian blogs.

Stewardship? The gospels are filled with Jesus’…

Stewardship?

The gospels are filled with Jesus’ parables of the message that has been given to his disciples and the importance of what they do with it. Burying the message, hiding it under a bushel basket or abusing “the menservants and servant girls, eating and drinking and getting drunk, (Luke 12:45)” are all soundly condemned. In the parables the King or Master always takes the kingdom away from such servants.

I live in a part of the United States where a short drive will take me to monstrous abandoned houses that once were filled with Catholic religious. They stand as monuments to what happens once the Church (in this case particular religious orders) no longer takes a stand for the truth.

Over the past forty years certain elements of the Church have been unwilling to stand up for the truth. Greed has usually been the motivation and not surprisingly once great institutions have fallen by the wayside as a result.

Catholic social institutions have not stood up for the truth in order to qualify for federal funds. I think it is ironic that the soup kitchen where Venerable Solunus Casey once provided soup (often times in what even the greatest skeptics call miraculous ways) has been torn down to build a multimillion dollar welcome center (minus any soup kitchen).

Catholic hospitals have stopped serving the poor, not been just to their employees and have allowed procedures to be performed that were at odds with the teaching of the Catholic Church. I think it is ironic that Columbus Hospital in Chicago, founded by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini recently closed, her shrine remains open there.

Catholic Schools have not been places of late where Catholics grow in their faith but rather often places where they lose it. Patricia Sodano Ireland has written of her experience at Boston College in “There We Stood, Here We Stand,” that left her unsatisfied in the Church because of the constant insistence by some of her professors that women should be ordained. She left the Catholic church and joined the Lutheran Church where she was ordained a Lutheran priest. Years later she has come back to the Catholic Church, leaving behind any possibility of priesthood. Why? Because of the Church’s official stand on life.

Behind it all are Bishops, who like the 10 of the Apostles on Easter Sunday are locked behind their chancery offices for fear. Fear of losing money? Fear of public opinion? Fear of saying anything less it hurt their chances for a better position within the church? Who knows, but clearly they have feared “mortal princes” more than the Prince of Peace.

Meanwhile the Judas’ and Thomas’ have been out and about.

The Judas’ seem hell bent on self-destruction. They remove any sign of Christ from their schools, hospitals, and church buildings. They pray to the “four winds” instead of to God. They seem anxious to go over to the rival religions and secular authorities, inquiring how much will you give us, if we hand him over to you? But in the end they leave behind empty churches, closed hospitals, the ruins of monasteries and disgruntled students. They know their time is short, so they speedily plunge toward self-destruction.

The Thomas’ meanwhile are out trying to rally the troops. They speak out for the truth, willing to travel with Jesus to Jerusalem and to “die with him.” They are truth seekers. They stand up to the Judas’ but receive no support from the fearful apostles. In fact the Thomas’ are often made to look like the “nuts.”

Into all of this, Our Lord now comes showing the wounds to the bishops locked behind chancery doors. Look at the damage you have done to my body the church! He holds up his wounds and says “Peace, be with you! This is what your silence, your inaction, your inability to lead with confidence that I am with you has done!”

A new policy? Lay boards with more lawyers and psychologists? Is this what the Lord gives his Apostles?

No, he breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. “Whoever sins you forgive they are forgiven, who sins you retain they are retained, (John 20:23).”

Retaining sins? This is precisely what the Church has been wont to do in the modern age. It is ready to forgive and forget in nearly every instance, but unwilling to retain in any.

There are certain sins that need to be retained because if you forgive them to easily you end up destroying the body of Christ. Certain people need to be excommunicated for the good of their souls (that they might convert back to the truth) and the good of the church.

How can this message reach the leadership of the Church? Christ appearing to the bishops in the persons of the victims who have been abused? Christ appearing to them in the person of those who hunger for the truth?

In the midst of the failures, the church continues to witness the success of new religious orders, new efforts at evangelization, new social outreaches. What all of these have in common is the “truth.” A Mother Angelica does not shy away from the truth and has built a television and radio empire from the humble collections of those who support her. The bishops with tons of money have been unable to replicate her success. She trust in God, who do they trust in?

Ultimately we all need to trust in God. God ultimately will win out. But we need to believe that God does not want us to bury the truth anymore than he wants the Bishops to do so.

Withholding money from the collection plate seems good on the surface because cynically most of us realize this is what motivates the Church these days. Promoting stewardship has become a big business because quite frankly people aren’t giving like they used to and for good reason I might add. Would this get the bishop’s attention?

Fr. Sean O’Neal in his blog has fretted that this would merely punish the parish because the diocese is going to get their take of the parish’s money one way or another. I am sensitive to his plight as a pastor, but I think a national withholding week before the June meeting of the bishops is a good idea. One might even make a proviso that if the bishops act forthrightly (which would entail a number of bishops resigning, taking a strong stand for the truth, taking charge of Catholic Education, social care, the training of priests, and weeding out heretics), that the laity would give three times as much the week after the meeting. This would help good pastors like Father O’Neal but would still make a statement.

If indeed “greed” is what is responsible for the present situation, along with “clericalism.” A national boycott as written about by Rod Dreher and others seems a very logical way to speak loudly and clearly to both while remaining loyal to Christ and the Church. Of course adding our prayers to this at the same time.

Failure to do anything because of fear, makes us part of the problem. The only person we should fear is Christ!

From Catholic News Service: Msgr. George G. Hig…

From Catholic News Service:

Msgr. George G. Higgins,America’s most noted labor priest, died early this morning at his sister’s home in La Grange, Ill

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker A few years ago,…

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

A few years ago, Amy and I made a pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. Blessed Andre Bessette is the founder of the Oratory.

Early in his life Andre left his Canadian homeland and traveled throughout New England seeking work in the factories there. He led a vagabond existence until finally returning to Canada and entering religious life.

In religious life his job was that porter meaning he was given the rather menial task of answering the door.

Yet it wasn’t long before people flocked to him to receive healing at his hands. One such healing story involves a young man who had pierced his hand accidentally with an ice pick. The hand became so infected that the doctors feared it would have to be removed. The young man a non-Catholic went to Brother Andre with the promise that if he were healed he would convert. He was healed and had no problem embracing the faith that Brother Andre held.

Brother Andre claimed that it was St. Joseph who gained from God the grace of healing that flowed through his hands. He encouraged those who came to see him to turn to Joseph.

“Tell him, ‘If you were in my place, Saint Joseph, what would you do? Well, then pray for this on my behalf.’”

Although he had the grace to heal others, Brother Andre was constantly sick himself.

He died in 1937 at the age of 91. “St. Joseph” was the last intelligible word he uttered.

“My ways are not your ways,” Scripture records God as saying. Our pilgrimage was my way of thanking St. Joseph who has figured heavily in my life over the past decade.

The first event happened some eleven years ago while I was making a retreat at Our Lady of Gethsemane in Kentucky (the entrance to the cloister is the pictured in the right hand column).

One night while praying on a hill that overlooks the monastery, underneath a statue of St. Joseph holding the child Jesus, I up at him and said, “You are the guardian and protector of the Church which is in such a mess, why aren’t you doing something about it?”

It was a rhetorical question, not meant to receive an answer, but I did receive one instantly:

“I am doing something, I am taking my son out of Egypt.”

At the time I applied that message to a close friend of mine who was leaving the priesthood. It seemed to fit. He left and was hired by a man whose name was Joseph to a new job on the Feast of Joseph the worker.

Yet it was several years later that I realized that the message was intended not for my friend but for me. I had gone through my own trial and was kneeling in front of a statue of St. Joseph in the Church. I was worried about finding a job. I had an interview the next day and was hopeful about it but still a little afraid. Until I realized that the next day was May 1st, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Suddenly whatever fear and anxiety I had left me and I knew that everything would be okay. It was and I received the job.

Joseph was silent for most of the next nine years (I don’t want anyone to think that this stuff happens to me all the time because it doesn’t), until one day when I was walking by a chapel dedicated to him in the crypt of the Archabbey Church of St. Meinrad. I was on my way to Vespers (evening prayer) and I stopped in for a visit. As soon as I opened the door and saw the statue of St. Joseph I immediately heard the words, “Have no fear about taking Amy as your wife.”

I realized that the words I heard were a play on the angels words from the Scriptures to Joseph but since the message wasn’t asked for and it came to me so plainly I accepted it without reservation.

Amy and I were married at St. Joseph’s Church in June several years ago. Our son, Joseph was born a little over a year ago.

Today, on this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and during the present crisis in the Church, we should all call for the intercession of St. Joseph to guide the Church toward a new day.

St. Joseph, Pray for us!

This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritua…

This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God. The previous are posted below among the other posts and last week’s archives. Here is the thirteenth step:

(13) To love fasting.

Most of us are not familiar with fasting, but we are with dieting. They are not the same thing. Dieting has to do with vanity, fasting has to do with a higher good. We all feel so many needs that are not real but remain unaware. Fasting is a traditional means of gaining the wisdom of what we truly need.

Notice that St. Benedict’s counsel is not simply to “fast” but rather to “love” fasting. He wishes that the monk’s desire be– to do without.

I am reminded of an old distinction made by Archbishop Fulton Sheen on his Life is Worth Living series. We have little choice over what we like, but love is an act of the will. We can choose to love something and we usually do learn to love both things and people that initially we may not have liked. We can also learn and choose to hate.

In a society such as ours fasting happens often enough but not for it’s own sake. People traveling or involved in work regularly skip meals for the sake of whatever has their focus. The problem is that in the long run we tend to be like camels and when we do sit down to eat, we gorge ourselves in case it might be awhile before we set down again.

What if we choose rather to only eat what we need? This has been suggested in numerous weight loss books as the most effective way of losing weight. It seems simple and reasonable. Notice that it essentially involves an act of will—but also notice that it is based on another truth that we tend to take more than we need.

What we need is the issue here. We seem totally out of touch with what we need to live healthy and productive lives versus what we are constantly being told we need to be happy.

It perhaps is wise in this environment to modify St. Benedict’s counsel to a more moderate course of action. We should love to fast from all excess. Since most of us are so caught up in a life of excess and are bombarded with messages that seek to convince our wills that we need more in order to survive, perhaps what we need to do first is to simply convince ourselves that we don’t need as much.

A simple meal will suffice. Does something in the back of my mind tell me that I need more?

Yes, I tell myself I need God. God is the “more” that I need and desire at all times!

Yes, I need the Bread of Life, but thank God this meal has given me the nourishment that my body needs and now I am ready to go on to the next part of my day.

I am not talking about dieting here, but I am talking about an attitude adjustment. A metanoia, “a complete turning around”, is what is necessary here. Years of being told we need more and more have left us unsatiated no matter how much we have acquired or have placed before us.

To “love” fasting is to fall in love with the feeling of incompleteness that only God can fill.