There is a Longing

Yesterday was the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, so here are a couple of his quotes on humility. "Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying." ***** "The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it." ***** "Humility and charity are two master-chords: one, the lowest; the other, the highest; all the others dependent on them. Therefore it is necessary, above all, to maintain ourselves in these two virtues; for observe well that the preservation of the whole edifice depends on the foundation and the roof."

Luke 16:19-31 Usually, in writing reflections, I try to focus on the beauty of the Gospels, in an attempt to incite practice of virtue, love of God, vigor for the faith…things of that nature. Today however, I’m going to put on a different lens. After reading The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena , the parable of Lazarus and the rich man will forever take on a new meaning for me. Before I explain why, please keep in mind that The Dialogue belongs to what the Church calls “private revelation.” This means that we are not bound to believe it; that it does not add to the Deposit of Faith or the Revelation of God’s Word; and is not necessary for salvation. That being said, private revelation can offer material for our personal reflections and meditations, and so I hope you will understand my use of it here. The Dialogue is a series of conversations between God and the soul. In the “Treatise of Discretion,” we find this parable, used to illustrate how the damned are unable to...

Born near Prague around the year 907, St. Wenceslaus was the son of Duke Wratislaw of Bohemia. Wenceslaus was raised by his Christian grandmother, who helped promote him as ruler of Bohemia in place of his anti-Christian mother (who ruled after Wratislaw's death). His grandmother, for all her efforts, was murdered, but Wenceslaus was able to assume leadership thanks to Christian supporters.  Through his strong Christian values, the goals & efforts of his rule were uniting the Bohemian people, Church support, & negotiating peace with Germany. That last one was an issue with anti-Christians, including his brother, Boleslav. Heading to Mass on the feast of Sts. Cosmas & Damian, he was attacked by Boleslav & killed by his brother's supporters.  While this was a politically motivated murder, he is considered a martyr for the Faith because of his strong Christian values which influenced his leadership.  St. Wenceslaus is the patron saint of Bohemia & the for...

Today is the Feast of St. Matthew, disciple of Jesus & Gospel author. So, I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from the Gospel of Matthew. "It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one."  (Matthew 15:12) *****   "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father." (Matthew 5:14-16) *****   "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) Your turn! Please share some of your favorite St. Matthew quotes in the comments!

                                                                9/18/2022     Dear W.H.R.,     (Whoever Happens to be Reading)     Praised be Jesus Christ!     Hello!...How are you?...It’s been a while…how’s the weather?...and so on and so forth with all of the other pleasantries.      Earlier this week, I entertained myself by pondering an odd scenario: what if a bridge was built across the ocean between two countries? (For instance, between the United States and Portugal, or Canada and France). While I know this is extremely impractical and somewhat impossible, it was still interesting to think about. I suppose there is something a little attractive about walking across an ocean into another country. But this isn’t a lesson, so I’m not going to go i...

Luke 16:1-13 Oftentimes, when we fall into some sort of trouble, we don’t seek atonement so much as a means to lessen the penalty or, if possible, to escape blame altogether.  When we foresee a punishment, we instinctively want to avoid it, for it serves as a painful reminder of our failing.  This is exactly how the steward acted.  He had squandered his master's property, and knew his reputation would be ruined.  Who would hire him now?  Being shrewd, the steward worked around this.  By granting debt reductions to his master’s debtors, he placed himself in their favor.  He now had a safeguard; he had people to fall back on when his punishment was enforced. We will draw two lessons from this (though I am sure there are many more to be found here).  First, we should not follow the steward’s example.  Here on earth, we are stewards of the Divine Master.  All that we have has been entrusted to us by God, and we must be faithf...

Despite the fact that Christianity has been a part of Korea since 1593, Koreans didn't have true religious freedom until 1883. Japan invaded Korea in 1592 & it is believed that Christian Japanese soldiers converted & baptized Koreans.  It was difficult, however, to evangelize the Korean people because their government refused most all interactions outside of their country, other than yearly taxes to Beijing. Around 1777, home churches managed to begin through the use of Jesuit literature obtained in China. Dozens of years later, a Chinese priest found his was into Korea & discovered 4000 Catholics. I think this is an amazing example of God's Will for the people of Korea...people who'd never met a priest or had access to the Sacraments became Catholic! By the year 1883, their numbers increased to around 10,000. There was still much persecution of Catholics, though. Andrew Kim Taegon was the first Korean priest & the son of Christian converts. For six years, h...

Luke 15:1-32      J esus offers us a handful of parables today, all commonly themed around the joy of finding the lost.  In a way, through these parables, Christ is placing a claim on us; and He gives us a glimpse of His infinite love, and desire that we always remain in Him.  It brings great pleasure to our Lord, when we can both humbly and confidently surrender ourselves to that love.  But to remain in Christ, we must first walk through the shadows and trials of this earthly life, in order to prove our love for Him is genuine, to strengthen it, and to wholly submit to that claim.  And it is in this we find our struggle; it is in this that we are often led to wander from the path and get lost.  Who hasn’t heard the child’s claim, “finders keepers?”  Hopefully, we have all learned the fault in this as we grow older.  But in reality, while most grow out of it, sin and temptation still hold fast to the idea.  For, when we stray a...

This Saturday, instead of featuring a saint, we are sharing one of the special feast days in the Catholic Church...The Exultation of the Holy Cross, celebrated on September 14th. St. Helena, (mother of Constantine, Roman emperor) in the 4th century, went to Jerusalem searching for holy locations from Christ's life. At the time, Constantine was leading an excavation in preparation for building the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. During this excavation, three crosses were found. A dying woman touched one of the crosses & was healed immediately.  Legends says that it was the cross on which our Lord was crucified. Therefore, a tradition began which continues to this day...Veneration of the Cross. On Good Friday each years Catholic churches around the world hold a special service where parishioners can approach the cross with a kiss, touch, or other prayerful acknowledgment. Veneration is also held at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre each September in honor of the day the Cross wa...

"We must speak to them with our hands before we speak to them with our lips." (St. Peter Claver)

Luke 14:25-33 On the surface, there isn’t much consolation to be found in today’s Gospel.  In fact, Jesus seems to be contradicting Himself.  Didn’t He ask us to love our neighbors?  That whatever we do to the least, we would be doing to Him?  So why would He now be telling us to hate our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters?  All of that hatred would only be directed to Him, wouldn’t it?  And it doesn’t stop there, for then we are to pick up our crosses, and renounce our possessions-all without a drop of love! But let us look beneath the surface.  Perhaps this hatred is not so much an ill will towards our dear ones, but rather a call to a more perfect love.  Sin and the frailty of our fallen nature pose obstacles to the perfection of love; they constantly pull our hearts away from God, tempting us to the love of things, which is an imperfect and tainted imitation of love.  The more we give of ourselves ...

St. Peter Claver was born in Spain on June 26, 1581. In 1610, as a young Jesuit priest, he left his homeland on a missionary trip to Cartagena, Columbia...part of The New World. Slave trading had been well under way for 100 years & Cartagena was the center for it. Yearly, around 10,000 slaves arrived in port from West Africa under horrible conditions. Nearly 1/3 of them lost their lives on the voyage. Upon his arrival, St. Peter Claver continued the work of Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval ministering to the slaves, providing them with medications & first aid, food, tobacco. He shared with them the love of God, through words & his actions. In his 40 years of missionary work, he baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves.  Beyond the care of slaves, he also preached & led missions in the city & country. While staying in the country regions, he chose to lodge in slave quarters as opposed to the luxury of the plantation owners' homes.  St. Peter Claver died in Sept...