Light of the World

 some gems from Venite ad me, just released:

Parents, above all, constitute that first “tabernacle” in which children can glimpse all the beauty and strength of being disciples of the Lord Jesus. This witness takes shape in a pattern of simple, everyday gestures: personal prayer and prayer as a couple, reading the Gospel, recalling the words and deeds of Jesus, remembering the patron saints, the constant invocation of the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, participation in Sunday Mass, visits to shrines and various forms of popular piety, care for the poor and disadvantaged, prayers of thanksgiving before meals, asking the Lord’s blessing on birthdays of family members, and the devout preparation of the Nativity scene during the Christmas season.

-Venite ad me, no.37

“Individualism does not make us more free, more equal, more fraternal. The mere sum of individual interests is not capable of generating a better world for the whole human family. Nor can it save us from the many ills that are now increasingly globalized. Radical individualism is a virus that is extremely difficult to eliminate, for it is clever. It makes us believe that everything consists in giving free rein to our own ambitions, as if by pursuing ever greater ambitions and creating safety nets we would somehow be serving the common good.”- Fratelli Tutti, as referenced in Venite ad me, no.56

65. It is evident that, in these cases, the proclamation of the Gospel—carried out in a variety of ways, from word of mouth and invitations to pilgrimages to an active presence in new media—makes it possible to respond to an authentic search for meaning that is reemerging amid the suffocating effects of immanence. Such a search can take many forms, none of which should be disregarded: the search for greater openness of heart, the need for peace and harmony with the world, the desire for consolation and healing, experiences of rupture and conflict that prompt a fresh start, new forms of beauty, a certain rediscovery of the past and of traditions, as well as many other examples that could be mentioned. These are realities that we should view with gratitude, recognizing in them the work of the Holy Spirit, who continues to act in people’s hearts.

78. The link between the kerygma and catechesis, in the context of this epochal change, is very close, to the point that the latter “cannot always be distinguished from the first proclamation,” and therefore it “is called to be in the first place a proclamation of the faith.”[75] Precisely in this regard, it may be helpful to recall a situation that is now increasingly common. As has already been noted, it happens more and more often that Christian parents are unable to pass on the faith to their children. Yet the very fact of requesting baptism for their children or accompanying them to catechesis already demonstrates a certain presence of faith and a fragile but genuine witness that should not be disregarded. In such cases, it is even possible that the children or adolescents who come to catechesis have not yet received an explicit first proclamation of the Gospel. Precisely for this reason, catechesis becomes the setting in which this proclamation can be offered anew, confirming the need for a profound kerygmatic renewal of catechesis, since it does not always give rise to an intense experience of encounter with Christ, one that can endure over time.[76]

79. On the other hand, it is a fact that the large number of children and adolescents who drift away from the Church and the sacraments immediately after completing their Christian initiation or their course of formation in a Catholic school indicates that catechesis still struggles to find the most appropriate ways to foster a solid and lasting personal encounter with Christ.

86. In practical terms, in order to truly inspire an experience of faith, the proclamation of the kerygma must adopt a style, language, and tone capable of reaching people where they are—with their desires and dreams, their struggles and trials. It must, therefore, be capable of presenting the good news of God’s love and mercy in such a way that those who receive it can truly understand that it is precisely to them that this love and mercy are directed. This is the style that characterizes the parables of the Lord Jesus, which even today capture the hearts of those who hear them.

Faith, in fact, is not transmitted solely through individual proclamation or teaching, but within a people who celebrate together. 

100. A final observation concerns the different stages of every human being’s life (childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood, and old age). These stages, in fact, constitute a kind of continual “reappropriation” of the gift of one’s birth into the world and, like that birth, are experiences that are both surprising and challenging. The ecclesial community must therefore develop a proclamation of the Gospel that is more attentive to the different stages of life, giving due consideration to the various situations of growth and renewal that each stage brings with it. At the same time, it should be remembered that many people encounter the Church only during celebrations marking certain fundamental moments in life: baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Therefore, it is essential to recognize that, in such circumstances, a precious opportunity arises to reach them with a proclamation of the kerygma capable of touching their hearts, while avoiding words that fail to foster any genuine encounter.

101. Of particular importance is the issue—already discussed—of the generational divide in the transmission of the faith. In this regard, the community of believers finds in the pastoral care of adults, who are also the parents of the younger generations, a new field of ministry marked by particularly complex challenges. Indeed, in the past, at least in countries with a long Christian tradition, the proclamation of the kerygma was directed almost exclusively at the young. Today, however, there is an increasingly urgent need to accompany people—including those baptized at a very young age—who live apart from the ecclesial community and who, despite feeling an inner call to a life according to the Gospel, struggle to understand and make the Church’s language their own. In these cases, the transmission of the faith to the younger generations depends on the evangelization of adults. Indeed, how can adults pass on the faith to the younger generations if they themselves do not first live it out on a personal level? Further difficulties may also arise from situations marked by various forms of existential poverty, especially in urban contexts characterized by marked fragmentation or in isolated rural areas. All of this challenges the Church as a whole, urging her to become ever more synodal and missionary, especially by fostering the charisms that the Holy Spirit stirs up in the People of God.

School of Conversion

Bishop Varden defends marriage:

"Much could be gained, I’d say, from putting together a terce, experience-based, faith-informed compilation of Apophthegmata for families, showing how trials may be handled constructively in the clarifying light of Christ’s commandments and his effective grace. 

When things are tough, we contract our perspective. We see only our present pain, not the path that may extend beyond it.

A principal pastoral concern in such situations is to recall the bigger picture, letting sufferers discover the potentially productive sense of their troubles, which may serve to lessen selfishness and purify love. Marriage, no less than monastic life, is a school of conversion. 

Concerning ‘irregular’ relationships, I find our Catholic communities normally embrace these maturely and well. It can be liberating for persons in such situations to be in a setting where their ‘irregularity’ is acknowledged, not relativised; and where they are yet embraced with Christian friendship, enabled to contribute to the community.

I think of the example of many faithful people I know who, Sunday after Sunday, come up for a blessing at the time of Communion, knowing they cannot accede to the sacrament, yet entrusting themselves to God’s mercy at work in the Church. 

Their example of fidelity does much to build up the Christian community. It testifies to the vital realism of the sacrament and to the virtue of hope. Sacramental exile sustained over time can prepare a joyful homecoming. 

Christ gave us his rigorous commandments to educate us and to liberate us from ourselves, ‘that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose again for us’ (Fourth Eucharistic Prayer). His intention is to make us grow in stature into new, divinised life. 

That life must always be the aim we propose to people, not merely human affirmation — though we all need a bit of that as well."

Make me a channel of correct attributions

I stand in solidarity with Amy Welborn today, a lone voice, shouting into the wind, "He never wrote it!"

Instead, today, pray with Sister Bodily Death and hope the Second Death does you no harm.

Second Death?? We didn't learn that in Rainbow Happy Jesus class--no, you didn't, because the death of your soul isn't a real concern for women religious of the LCWR stripe or OFM liberals. 

Deacon's Bench poured some cold water too by sharing this fact check.

Vote Distributist

from Zeale magazine:

When Blessed Sheen launched his famous broadsides against Soviet communism, he did not treat Marxism merely as an economic rival to the West. Having read Marx, Lenin, and Stalin closely, he diagnosed Communism, alongside the Church’s social encyclicals, as a tragic Christian heresy — a pseudo-religion that took Christian concepts of brotherhood and care for the poor and stripped away the transcendent.

Crucially, Blessed Sheen was equally unflinching in his critique of Western materialism. In works like Communism and the Conscience of the West, he pointed out that totalitarian collectivism was born from the moral failures of raw, laissez-faire capitalism that treated human beings as mere economic units. He warned that the West could never defeat Communism through secular wealth or military might alone; if society abandoned its moral and spiritual foundations, it would simply slide into socialism as a shortcut to materialistic ends. 

“Monopolistic capitalism concentrates wealth in the hands of a few capitalists, and communism in the hands of a few bureaucrats, and both end in the proletarianization of the masses,” he wrote.

Blessed Sheen stood firmly on Catholic social teaching, showing that the only real answer to the world's hunger is Christ.

______This is why I vote Distributist: American Solidarity Party!

Age of Feeling

 “The reason why chastity is on the decline is that we live in a sensate culture. In the Middle Ages there was an Age of Faith, then came the Age of Reason in the eighteenth century; now we are living in the Age of Feeling.”      - Blessed Fulton Sheen (Treasure in Clay)

..or, as I call it, the Tyranny of Subjectivity

from a great article at The Catholic Thing:

Only a century ago Rationalism gloried in having liberated the intelligence from extrinsic control. Now it has denied the rights of reason entirely and falls down before the altar of sentiment. In pulling the mitre from intellectual man it has pulled the head off with it. We are no longer men, but animals. We “feel” our way instead of knowing it.

Exaltation and Sorrow

Cling to the Cross. Cling to His Mercy. 

No token of the toil

 “Build me a grave beside the sea”

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Build me a grave beside the sea,

Heap the brown earth over me

Upon a cliff above the sea.

Build it broad and high my mound,

That ships hereafter homeward bound

May mark afar my seaward mound:

A cavernous enclosed pit,

Sad heavy earth piled over it —

Of memory a symbol fit,

A fitting and a final end,

For now there’s no more tale to spend,

This is the end, this is the end!

Raw at first and torn and red

As though the earth had with me bled,

Slowly the green shall hide the red,

And, as your tears shall slowly dry,

And as you one by one shall die

And your springing songs of me shall dry

Till gently my name new men forget

The rains and dews shall the barrow wet

And greener and smoother it will get,

While Earth by stages slow unseen

Dissolves it, reshapes it to what has been,

Till nothing unkindred to the cliffs is seen,

No token of the toil and death of men,

Scarce a swelling of the grass — what then!

What if the Earth is filled with unknown men!

Paracleted

In the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:4), Jesus teaches that those who grieve and mourn will be comforted. The Greek actually says “paracleted.” The Holy Spirit anoints the brokenhearted, if we will allow ourselves to abide in our heartache and receive divine remedy. He brings comfort, encouragement, and peace. God’s love heals.

This healing does not mean that the heartache goes away! It brings love and truth, meaning and purpose into the midst of what had seemed to be only chaos and absurdity. Jesus reveals himself as Lord even in the darkest places of our heart. I find, in fact, that the more glimpses and tastes I receive of the goodness of God, the more I will suffer in aching for more. I see the same experience in the lives of the Saints and the prayer of any great mystic in our spiritual Tradition.

So what does happen when others kindly witness my heartache, and the Holy Spirit anoints me in my grief? The most important change is that I am no longer alone. What once was trapped in isolation and fragmentation is now set free. What was frozen begins to thaw (which sometimes hurts!). What was rigid and inflexible can now flow and move toward wholeness and connection. I begin to experience love and communion in places which (I thought) love could not possibly enter. Only love did enter. That’s the entire point of Jesus’ rescue mission – to become flesh and go to the deepest places of human agony, conquering with a love that is both human and divine. Jesus duped the devil, concealing his glory in human flesh and bringing his love into the depths of sin and death.

Without Jesus’ suffering, death, and burial, the dark side of our human existence is indeed unbearable. Now, however, no matter how deep I go into my own heartache or the heartache of another, I will discover that Jesus is already there. He’s already descended deeper. He’s already issued the summons to come to the heavenly wedding celebration, in which all God’s scattered children, and all the scattered fragments of our hearts, will be gathered at table for the feast. Then, at long last, there will be no more weeping and no more death. -excerpt from Spiritual Direction

Abundant breasts

Isaiah 66:10-11

Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,

all you who love her;

exult, exult with her,

all you who were mourning over her!

Oh, that you may suck fully

of the milk of her comfort,

that you may nurse with delight

at her abundant breasts!

"Be consoled in the time of trial and say with the bride: "Draw me after you; we shall run in the odor of your ointments." This will keep your hopes buoyant in times of hardship, and give you foresight when fortune favors you. You will ride above the vicissitudes of good and evil times with the poise of one sustained by values that are eternal, with that enduring, unshakeable equanimity of the man of faith who thanks God in every circumstance. So even amid the fluctuating events and inevitable shortcomings of this giddy world you will ensure for yourself a life of durable stability, provided you are renewed and reformed according to the glorious and original plan of the eternal God, the likeness of him in whom there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow of a change. Even in this world you will become as he is: neither dismayed by adversity nor dissolute in prosperity. Living thus, this noble creature, made to the image and likeness of his Creator, indicates that even now he is re-acquiring the dignity of that primal honor, since he deems it unworthy to be conformed to a world that is waning. Instead, following Paul's teaching, he strives to be reformed by the renewal of his mind, aiming to achieve that likeness in which he knows he was created...So let us run and run, but in the odor of your ointments, not by trusting in our own worth. We pin our hopes for the race, not in the durability of our powers but in the abundance of your mercies. For although when we ran we did so willingly, it depended not upon man's will or exertion but upon God's mercy. Let mercy but return and we shall run again." -St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 21

In the lactation of St. Bernard, we learn the feminine genius to which all bridal souls are called.

Pater

Researchers observed that, during the first few weeks of life, a father’s brain undergoes a reorganization. Areas primarily associated with the perception and processing of stimuli gradually give way to those linked to empathy, emotional regulation, attentiveness to the child, and the ability to interpret the child’s needs. This progressive adaptation of the father’s brain focuses on the demands of parenting and on the child, prioritizing them over personal concerns. After the first few weeks of fatherhood, connections between regions responsible for empathy, affection, and emotional understanding increase, and the neural network dedicated to infant care becomes consolidated; according to researchers, this process, reflected in daily involvement in child-rearing, transforms the male brain. The authors note that children trigger specific biological, emotional, and neuronal adaptation processes in mothers, but fathers also undergo hormonal and brain changes; they are not merely auxiliary participants in the child’s development, as they must adapt to meet the new demands of fatherhood. Evidence of these changes in men is seen in endocrine adaptations occurring both before and after the birth, specifically, lower testosterone levels and higher prolactin levels compared to men who are not fathers. This fosters paternal attachment.

A Man’s Brain Changes (For the Better) When He Becomes a Father: Findings Revealed by the Nature Review | ZENIT - English

Marian to the Max

 Please join me in praying the 14-day consecration with St. Maximilain Kolbe

Priorities

"Consider a different calculus. The house that's a little smaller, a little farther from the trendy part of town, the one that doesn't photograph as well – that house might also be the one where a parent can be home when the school bus arrives. The vacation that doesn't make anyone jealous might be the one the kids remember longest. The family that looks, from the outside, like it 'settled' might be the one that figured something out the rest of us are still chasing.

This is not an argument against ambition, or careers, or the legitimate desire of men and women to build professional lives that matter to them. It is simply a suggestion that the cultural machinery pushing Americans toward bigger and 'better' may have a cost. And that cost is sometimes paid in the very currency that three-in-four Americans say they value most: time with the people they love, their family."

-Nexus article on why a second income may not be vital, here

Blessed Solanus Casey

 O God, who in your Providence
conformed Blessed Francis Solanus to the image of your son,
making him tireless in service to the poor,

by his intercession and example, 
grant also to us the same generosity and joy
in giving of ourselves in service to our neighbor,

through our Lord Jesus Christ!

We get to celebrate him in our Diocese now on his feast day.
He is buried near the graves of my ancestors.