Daily Rosary Meditations | Catholic Prayers

In the Gospel of the Mass today, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, neither the younger nor the older son accepted what they were, sons of the Father. The younger rejected his sonship, wishing his Father dead to receive his inheritance and go and do as he pleased; the older son, by his own words, revealed his true conviction when he said to his father, “all these years I have slaved for you.” For some reason, neither could accept they were sons of the father. Maybe it was the deadly sin of acedia, otherwise known as sloth that prevented them. Sloth is that sin in which we wish to escape the effort, self-control and sacrifice it takes to be an adopted son or daughter of God. In our fallen human nature, it is hard, I mean there is stuff that will have to change in our lives, we will need to detach from disordered desires and addictions that keep us from living according to our true identity and dignity. As I stated yesterday Acedia is an aversion to the invitation from God to become godlike, a saint. What follows is the effort to escape our noble calling through busyness, workaholism, entertainment, news, sports, drunkenness, drug use, pornography, or sex In the last analysis, acedia is this that man will not be what God wants him to be, His son Magnanimity conquers sloth or acedia - Magnanimity is this: I want to be what you O God want me to be – your son and a saint! I don’t want to escape this call to greatness. I accept it, with all its responsibilities, knowing that I cannot do this on my own, but I am confident you can do it in me! I stand ready – Father, go to work on me! I will not run away. This is why magnanimity is so closely related to Hope – the confident expectation that God can and will do in me what He wants if I stand still and don’t run away. Why is it necessary to stand still, to sit in quiet and stillness? First, Because in pride we think everything depends upon us and so we have to be diligent responsible and keep busy. This pride and self-reliance blocks the action of God because only God can make us holy. Second we are afraid of what needs to be done in us to reach our potential and we think if we keep moving, God wont notice us and He will leave us alone and we can prevent God from doing what needs to be done in the us Third we just don’t want to become what God wants us to become so we avoid him through those things I mentioned above: we avoid God by being responsible in the sense of being so damn busy that we are really just running away, or in distraction with news, entertainment, social media, kids sports, on and on and on…However when we sit in quiet, solitude and stillness we have to say to God: Not my will but Your will be done! God I am going to sit here in silence and stillness because I want you to do in me whatever you want to do in me Its really very simple, stop trying to escape. Make some small break in the routine and rut of your life. Give God 5, 10, 20, 30 minutes of undivided attention with no distractions, be still and let Him do in you what He wants. Then make a habit of this every day. You have settled for far too little and its time to demand more for yourself which is exactly what God has always wanted – but you wouldn’t let him.

As we saw in defining hope, for this virtue to be present the person must perceive heavenly happiness as a) something desirable and possible, and b) something not yet secure. If either of these two truths are lacking from a person’s outlook, hope will die. Hence there are two vices which are directly opposed to the second theological virtue: Despair and Presumption. The primary threat to hope is despair. Despair isn’t just a feeling of gloominess, or depression. It’s the refusal to strive after God, the refusal to make Holiness and Heaven our primary goal and to work for it. People succumb to despair for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, the causes of despair can be narrowed down to two categories. The first is excessive self-focus. If you just look at yourself you’re going to be struck with how disproportionate your strengths are relative to the goal. In other words, if you just look at yourself you’ll only see that there’s not enough there to do what needs to be done, and you’ll end up giving up on holiness and happiness. And it’s certainly the case that what we have on our own isn’t enough, which is why we’re supposed to keep our eyes on Christ, beg for God’s mercy and strength, and realize that “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). An excellent illustration of the danger of self-focus is the story of Peter, who, as long as he kept his attention on Our Lord, was able to walk on water. When his focus switched to his own personal ability and the surrounding circumstances, he began to sink. That’s how the interplay between hope and despair works: look at Him, not at yourself. The second reason we despair is attachment to sin. We end up not really wanting to pursue God, because we know it’s going to mean giving up certain sins to which we’ve grown accustomed. So we choose the evil habits we’re used to over the promise of eternal joy. You are designed to be a saint. But you don’t want to be a saint because you don’t want to give up things you think you cant live without which aren’t really making you happy anyway, still you are addicted to them. What are they? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the addictions that keep you from perfect joy! A major symptom of despair is an inordinate need for distraction. When you make the decision to settle for mediocre pleasures, mediocre achievements, mediocre loves, you still know deep down you ought to be pursuing higher things. So you try to find some distraction to help you drown out the divine call. Do you remember what it was like to put off studying for a big test, and then tried to make up for it by spending a night in the library? When you get to the library you’re terrified about how much work you have to do, and how little time you have to do it in. You know you need to buckle down and get to the books, but instead you go into denial, trying not to think about it. You wander aimlessly around the library in desperate search of anything that’ll help you procrastinate. You read a magazine article that isn’t even interesting, you browse your social media online, you strike up a conversation with the library staff. But all the while you’re bored, and you have this sick feeling in your stomach because you know a) that the test is coming, b) you don’t know what’s going to be on it; c) you’re not ready for it. That’s our society. We know we ought to spend our time on more noble aspirations, getting ready for the final accounting of judgment, but we really don’t want to talk about it, and we don’t even want to think about it. So we look for anything that can distract us, anything that can drown out the guilt. Maybe that’s why there’s so little silence today.  Presumption is a much more infrequently discussed kind of hopelessness. It’s the vice of thinking heaven is guaranteed: “I’m as good as saved already.”  Presumption can be just as dangerous as despair.

1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, But we don’t desire heaven and we fear death because we fear heaven because we think all the good stuff to be done is here on earth and heaven is just rest, you know R.I.P. What will we do in Heaven? Let me suggest three things we will do in heaven: Understand our earthly life by God’s knowledge, share in all other human lives, and endless exploration into God and the New Universe First, we will review our past life with divine understanding and appreciation of every single experience, good and evil: This corresponds to the first stages of Heaven known as Purgatory. It might consist of moral reeducation, rather than mere punishment, rehabilitation rather than retribution. Second, we do the same to other’s lives from within. We will know them more intimately and completely than we could ever know our most intimate friend on earth b/c we share God’s knowledge of one another. The Communion of Saints will be even more interesting than human love on earth. Think of the first time you fell in love. The joy of learning about another person and doing all good things with them . Yet without out all the imperfections, and not just with one person, but with all people. We will have the ability to know every human that ever lived. Even more intimately than we knew our closest friend on earth. Who would you like to become best friends with in Heaven? Your spouse, or son or daughter. Maybe a friendship cut short here on earth. I think of my two best friends killed in high school and college. My guardian angel. Who do you want to meet? We will not only explore our own lives and the lives of others - We will begin the endlessly fascinating task of exploring, learning and loving all the facets of the inexhaustible nature of God. The Contemplation of God is not boring.  Heaven will be: Dynamic rather than static. Exploring rather than staring at God. Endless beginnings rather than merely the end because the whole world will be renewed and transformed The material universe itself is destined to be transformed Heaven will be a “New Heavens and a New Earth” 2 Pet. 3:13 “New Heavens and New Earth” means that Every good thing on earth will be in heaven Philippians 3:21 For us, our homeland is in heaven and from heaven comes the savior we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which he can subdue the whole universe. From The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis chapters fifteen and sixteen Drawn into a stable Set the scene with the end of the world Closing of the stable door Their sadness at the loss of everything good in Narnia Bigger on the inside than it was on the outside This is fiction but it certainly helps us think about the Heaven and think about it we must b/c that reality charges everything here with eternal significance and that is hope.

Recently we’ve meditated on the theological virtues of charity and faith, today hope. As we have discussed, faith reveals to us God’s supernatural plan for our lives. With faith we know that the ultimate purpose of each human person lies in the transforming union with God in this life and its fulfillment in Heaven. Once we have this knowledge, it’s time to begin working towards that objective. That’s where the theological virtue of hope enters the picture. Hope is the virtue whereby the individual strives for union with God and Heaven as something which is possible, but not yet guaranteed. There are, then, three conditions needed for the virtue of hope: firstly, an active pursuit of God and Heaven; secondly, a realization that holiness, becoming a saint and the attainment of Heaven is possible, (after all, if it wasn’t possible, why would anyone even try?); thirdly, a realization that failing to attain holiness and Heaven is also possible, (after all, if getting to Heaven was guaranteed, why would you need to work at getting there?). Tragically, it’s common to hear this striving for Holiness and Heaven as something which is merely a distraction from the responsibilities of this life of making a difference on earth.  For example, Marx, the founder of atheistic Communism once famously said that “religion is the drug of the people,” and more recently, Carl Sagan stated, “Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of the astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.”  I guess people think that ideas about the next life are simple forms of escapism or wishful thinking that keeps us from doing any good in this world. Yet actually the contrary is true. Those with their eyes fixed on Heaven are the ones who do the most good for earthly society. C.S. Lewis articulates this very clearly: "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.” Mother Teresa did more for the poor than anyone and she spent at least four hours in prayer every day. The fact is that those who are only interested in conditions down here lack the power to actually affect conditions down here. Hope, the pursuit of God, Heaven, and holiness, is what charges us on towards the perfection of temporal matters. So do you really want to make a difference?  Do you really want to change the world? Then start by making sure you’re putting God and your supernatural destiny first. A critical part of hope is the desire for Heaven. The weird thing is that even though many of us know we should pursue the supernatural good, we don’t really want to. Union with God has somehow grown unattractive to a great many people. Heaven’s lost its appeal. Why is this, and what can we do to foster a longing for the happiness of the next life? Well, one of the key reasons we lack a healthy attraction to God and Heaven is that our imagination has gotten very weak when it comes to Heaven. When we think of Heaven, we think of a white room, or a big choir that sings “alleluia” all day long, or a bunch of people playing harps and sitting on clouds. Obviously those images of Heaven aren’t going to thrill us; they’re not going to make us excited about the next life. We’ve lost sight of the glory, the joy, the total and perfect happiness that awaits us when we finally come home to God. We're all becoming cynics. Spend time meditating on what God and the saints have to say about Heaven! 

(Luke 10:38-42). Jesus tells us in plain language: Only one thing is necessary, a deep friendship with Him; spending time alone with Him; talking to Him, listening to him in meditation, and just being with him in silence. If you ask anyone what the bare minimum amount of time for a good conversation with a friend over coffee or a beer unanimously they say at least 30 minutes. If we want a friendship with Jesus we should give Him no less every day. If we cannot, then we are addicts If we will not, then we really don’t want a relationship with God. I think the addictions to the routines of your life are preventing you. You can’t break these addictions in an instant. But you can make one small break in your routines which will free up the log jam and the next steps will follow. What is one small change you can make in your routine to enable you to have more time with Jesus in friendship: maybe  go to bed earlier, get up earlier, spend less time on the phone or computer or TV and then spend that time in friendship with Jesus? Prayer is friendship with God: it is talking, listening and just being together. This corresponds to the three major expressions of prayer: Vocal prayer - speaking to God; Meditation – listening to God; Contemplation – just being with the One who loves us Now, it is not difficult to speak to God – but it is more difficult to listen to him. By listening we mean first, the prayer of meditation. The Catechism suggests two forms of meditation: Lectio Divina (reading and reflecting on the Bible or some writing of a saint or spiritual author); and secondly, the Rosary This Rosary Podcast is a great way to do daily meditation Regardless of the Method all Meditation includes 3 Simple Steps Read or Listen to something from the Word of God which means something from the Bible, or a saint, or a good spiritual writer Reflect or Think about what struck you Try to understand the passage; observe what is going on or being said and ask questions. Relate or apply it to your life Draw conclusions that fit your life Talk over all of this with Jesus in your mind and heart Form a Resolution Choose something practical and concrete to remember or to do today based on your      meditation Write down your resolution and keep it with you Put it into  practice St Francis De Sales on the importance of a resolution: The most important thing of all is that you cling firmly to the resolutions you have taken in meditation so as to practice them carefully. That is the great fruit of meditation, without which it is often not only useless but harmful. Why so? Because the virtues upon which we have meditated but not practiced sometimes puff us up so much in mind and heart that we think we are already what we are resolved to be which no doubt is the case if our resolutions are solid and ardent. But when, on the contrary, they are not practiced, they are useless and dangerous. (Introduction to the Devout Life, II Chap 8) In the Reported Message of Our Lady in Medjugorje on July 25, 2019 she exhorts us to perseverance in Prayer “Dear children! My call for you is prayer. Prayer will be joy for you and a crown that binds you to God. Children, the trials will come and you will not be strong and sin will reign but if you are mine, you will win because your refuge will be the Heart of my Son Jesus. Therefore children, return to prayer so that prayer becomes life for you, day and night. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Today October 7, is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, originally the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, because when the victory comes it will come through the Rosary! Throughout the 1500s, the Muslim Ottoman Empire grew in strength, especially by means of its domination of the Mediterranean Sea. In 1571, their fleet of 300 ships was massed, just south of Greece, in the Gulf of Lepanto, poised to invade Europe and wipe out Christianity. Pope St. Pius V saw this danger looming on the horizon. In response, he begged the leaders of the West to stop fighting among themselves and unite against the force that was a threat to all. But they were too consumed with building their own kingdoms to come to the defense of the Kingdom of God. So he turned to the Christian people, asking them to take up the weapon of the Rosary and pray it daily. Pope St. Pius V finally found support in Don Juan of Austria, who cobbled together a much smaller fleet of about 200 ships. Giovanni Andrea, a Genoese admiral, agreed to lead the Christian armada against the Islamic onslaught. He possessed one of only five copies of Our Lady of Guadalupe and had been touched to the original Tilma, a gift from the King of Spain, which he hung in his flagship. On October 6, 1571, the night before the battle, Don Juan required all his sailors and soldiers to pray the Rosary while St. Pius V himself led the rosary at the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. He knew that if Europe was to be saved, it would only be through the intervention of the Mother of God and the Rosary. On October 7, 1571, the Christian and Muslim fleets entered into Battle in the bay, south of the town of Lepanto (Greece). The Muslim fleet, led by Ali Pasha, arranged in the formation of a massive quarter moon. The Christian fleet was arranged in the shape of a cross, divided into three squadrons: left, center, and right. The battle started badly for the Christians: the Muslim fleet broke through the left and center squadrons, heading right for Admiral Doria’s ship. Doria slipped down to his cabin, where he had hung the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, fell on his knees and began to pray the Rosary. At that moment, the winds shifted against the Islamic fleet and scattered it. The Christians regrouped and destroyed two-thirds of the Ottoman armada. It is said that the sea was red with blood for miles around by the end of the battle. In Rome, Pope Pius V knew the Christians were victorious before a message could possibly have reached him. During a meeting in the Vatican the pope suddenly rose up and gazed out the window, saying “This is not a moment for business; make haste to thank God, because our fleet this moment has won a victory over the Turks.” When the official news reached Rome, Pope Pius V gave credit to the Virgin Mary. He declared October 7th the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, which we celebrate today as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, because the victory came through the power of the Rosary. At Fatima Mary promised that in the end Her Immaculate Heart would Triumph. But she made it clear the Triumph would only come IF we did our part and use the weapon she has given us: The Rosary. At San Nicolas Mary said: “The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary." Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima said, "The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”

Luke 17:5-10 The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. ‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”’ We need an increase of faith; we are expected to be good servants, good soldiers The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ Faith is misunderstood. All people have a built-in desire for God because we were created for union with him and nothing less will satisfy. God takes the initiative in this relationship – He reveals himself to man and offers a total unconditional gift of himself, through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the full revelation of God. Jesus reveals all that we need to know to live in relationship with God and Jesus offers Himself to us in Baptism and the Eucharist so that we can achieve the purpose of life – union with God. All that is left is our response; our response to God is what we mean by Faith: By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company." The adequate response to this invitation is faith. (CCC 142) So, God reveals and offers himself to us through Jesus. Faith is my response to God by my total gift of self to him and believing the whole truth of what Jesus teaches. Faith is a response to all God has done and revealed. My good friend Terry Sexton, a former Marine taught me the Key to Battle – And make no mistake, we are in a ferocious Spiritual War. Archbishop is our General. The Priests are the Commanders. You are supposed to be the Marines. The Marines Equip their soldiers at the lowest level with sound tactics – because as soon as the battle begins, no plan survives the 1st contact with the enemy. The Most Basic Unit in the Marines is a Fire Team consisting of 4 Marines. Every Marine is equipped to lead a Fire Team of 3 others. They are given basic tools to take care of one another. You have be a Fire Team leader. You must determine Who your Unit is – who are the 3 people you will take care of in this Spiritual Battle? Family, grand kids, close friends, those who have been entrusted to you. Ask the Holy Spirit and determine now who your Unit is that you commit to be responsible for. You must Equip your Fire Team – your Unit with Tactics -Friendship, meaningful conversation and prayer. Create a time and a place, and an atmosphere in which you do the things you like to do that does not involve a screen and invite others to do it with you. Have coffee, or a meal, or drinks or desert, go for a walk, play cards…whatever you like and have a good conversation while you are doing it. Learn the Art of Meaningful Conversation. Don’t begin by telling people stuff; instead, Seek to know, understand, love and care for them. Validate their existence by being genuinely interested in their lives, learn the art of asking good questions. Then, lead your fire team in praying the Rosary daily.  I want you to help me Build an army for Our Lady of 10,000 people who live this movement of families and friends who live this way of life of Friendship, meaningful conversation and praying the Rosary together by 8/22/2020 the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. 

Be an apostle of the Rosary! Share this with others!

Today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. He wanted to be a warrior, a knight in battle, yes for his own glory, still he wanted to be a soldier. When he was a young man he had a dream that his home changed into a great palace filled with shields, armor, swords and banners – on all this war equipment glittered a red cross. As he wandered the halls a beautiful poorly-clad young woman appeared and clasped his hand tightly and said to him: “Francis, my beloved, all this is for you and for your companions. Take up your arms.” Francis misinterpreted the dream. The poorly clad young woman was Lady Poverty; the companions – Franciscans, not secular Knights, and the weapons well, God had other weapons in mind: prayer, penance and preaching. God does not give up on us in our miscues. Francis came to the broken-down church of St. Damian, barley more than rubble. He fell on his knees before the Crucifix and in the silence, Jesus spoke saying: “Rebuild my Church. It is falling down.” Again, Francis did not interpret the will of God perfectly, he began rebuilding the little stone chapel of St. Damian. It was a good start, but God had something much bigger in mind. Men began Francis and his way of life. When there were 12, they went to the Pope for his approval. The night before, the Pope had a strange dream. The Pope dreamed he saw the Church splitting apart, and when it was about to fall into pieces, a small man came up and put his shoulder against the building and with one shove he set the Church back on its foundations like new. When the Pope awoke, he knew the small man was Francis. He approved his way of life. The Church and the world today are in a difficult situation. There are 100 million people in America who were baptized Catholic. Only 15-20% go to Mass every Sunday. The largest and fastest growing group of people have no religious affiliation. For every person under 30 who enters the Catholic Church, 4-5 leave. Baby-boomers are gentrifying, the family is disintegrating, and marriages and baptisms are down by 50 % since 1971. US Surgeon General has declared loneliness and isolation a public health crisis. Roughly half of Americans suffer from this “disease” which I call “Friendship Deficit Syndrome” in which people have no one to share deeply with. Suicide is the number 2 killer of teens behind motor vehicle accidents. Drug overdose is #1 killer of Americans under 50; both a symptom of loneliness. Jesus personally invested in the Apostles, then at the Last Supper he said, “I no longer call you servants but friends.” Salvation comes from faith. Faith comes through friendship. St. Francis of Assisi once told a brother who was struggling with doubts: “Do not be troubled brother, but through friendship learn faith.”  Where you live create an atmosphere of hospitality, friendship and good conversation in your kitchen, living room, deck, garage, by the pool – wherever. Invite people into this space, offer them something to drink or eat. Nobody cares if your house looks like Pintrest, in fact, if your home is too neat and clean it is not hospitable, it looks like no one lives there – the devil wants to stop you by this temptation. Don’t freak out about putting out a big spread – just offer what you have in your fridge and pantry.  The Second Part of this way of life is to Learn the Art of Meaningful Conversation. Don’t begin by telling people stuff; it’s not your responsibility to fix people – that is God’s responsibility – not yours.The first step is to Seek to know, understand, love and care for them. Validate their existence by being genuinely interested in their lives. Learn the art of asking good questions.  The third part of this way of life is that prayer and conversation with friends have some of the same ingredients.  

Since the 19th century this world welcomed, as though it is good news, what people call the death of God. Man, finally free, has become his own god. He can now enter on the way of progress with no inhibitions. According to those who rely completely on science, man is going to be able to resolve by himself all his problems, including the problem of war and even the problem of death. It is thought that there will be a scientific means found to overcome this final disaster which overtakes every human life. In this triumphalistic spirit the world has calmly given itself over to sin, to the most animalistic desires of the human person, which become the religion and morality of the world. From this has come the worst of slaveries, the worst of violence and the worst of despair. Mary, the Mother of God and Our Mother has been appearing at Medjugorje since June 24, 1981 until this day, Oct 2, 2019 to warn us this calm abandonment to sin has placed the world in a state of self-destruction, with no faith and no moral law, and therefore with neither order nor meaning in life, and this is occurring among Christians…Self-destruction because of sin is what Mary has come to warn the world of. This is precisely the message of the ten secrets of Medjugorje which have not yet been disclosed but are destined to be so. The message, which started again June 24th of 1981 and continues to this day is a message of faith, prayer, fasting, conversion, and peace. The message of the reported apparitions at Medjugorje is one of faith in God, The official atheism of Communism in the East tried to eliminate God, and the practical atheistic materialism of the West has done this more thoroughly. God exists, he loves us, but he has created us free and will do nothing for us without us. This is the very law of creation, in fact it is the law of love. God offers Himself to us through His Son Jesus Christ. God waits for our response, our yes or no. We give our yes through Faith in which we give ourselves unconditionally to the Father through Jesus; we believe all that He revealed that is handed down through the Catholic faith as it is summarized in the Catechism and we do our best to live what he revealed. If we don’t live it then we must not have believed it in the first place. The Blessed Mother says specifically in the messages that all religions are not equal and so there’s no sense of a false ecumenism. Jesus Christ is the one mediator to the Father. Our Lady has also given in the Medjugorje message a promise to leave a permanent visible sign for the “unbelievers”, something people can come and see, which will assist them in accepting the authenticity of Medjugorje. At Medjugorje Our Lady is asking for a clearly greater quality and quantity of prayer, what she calls prayer of the heart, a greater interior prayer, and with this call of greater quality of prayer there’s also very clearly a call for more generosity in prayer. Prayer is essential to the Message of Medjugorje because it is in prayer that we communicate with God, that our life derives its energy and is shared with God. Without prayer so many lives are distracted and dispersed for nothing because they are restricted to human solutions alone. Prayer brings us back to the very source of our existence and the goal of our life – God. At Medjugorje, Mary has called for the fifteen decade rosary daily, and if one is quick to dismiss this as just impossible in the present world, it might be good to keep in mind that John Paul the Second got fifteen decades in each day and because he did, was inspired to do the same and therefor, Pope Francis also gets in his fifteen decades, so, they have rather packed schedules, rather significant calendars, and yet they get their prayers and so perhaps it’s not as impossible of a request as one might think at first glance. Our Lady calls for Mass to be the “gift of the day” for the faithful. 

Today we celebrate the reality that God has given each person a guardian Angel St. Faustina writes: When I entered the chapel for a moment that same evening, to thank God for all the graces He had bestowed on me in this house, suddenly God’s presence enveloped me.  I felt like a child in the hands of the best of fathers, and I heard these words:  Do not fear anything.  I am always with you.  His love penetrated my whole being.  I felt I was entering into such close intimacy with Him that I cannot find words to express it. 630 Then I saw one of the seven spirits near me, radiant as at other times, under a form of light.  I constantly saw him beside me when I was riding on the train.  I saw an angel standing on every church we passed, but surrounded by a light which was paler than that of the spirit who was accompanying me on the journey, and each of these spirits who were guarding the churches bowed his head to the spirit who was near me. When I entered the convent gate at Warsaw, the spirit disappeared.  I thanked God for His goodness, that He gives us angels for companions.  Oh, how little people reflect on the fact that they always have beside them such a guest, and at the same time a witness to everything!  Remember, sinners, that you likewise have a witness to all your deeds. One day there was an assassination attempt on the life of St Josemaria Escriva the founder of “The Work of God.” As Josemaria was climbing some steps through a busy crowd a man came towards him with knife intent on killing him. Suddenly it seemed, out of nowhere, another large man passed in front of him and disarmed the man with the knife. Josemaria did not recognize either of the men but as the assailant was led away, the other tall man came over to Josemaria and whispered in his ear “you mangey donkey” Josemaria immediately knew then who this man was: it was his Guardian Angel. You see each day in his prayers to God, Josemaria would ask God to look after his “mangey donkey” referring to himself. He had done this all his adult life but had never told a living soul. s a gift from God you have at your disposal an angel of vastly superior intellect who is not bound by space and time to help you know and do the will of God and to protect you from the devil and demons. This Angel was created at the beginning of the world, has seen everything, and is at your disposal to guide and protect you. On May 31, 2000, the CDF approved this consecration prayer: O Holy Angels of God, here, in the presence of the Triune God and in the love of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer, I a poor sinner, want to make a covenant with you, who are his servants, so that in union with you, I might work with humility and fortitude for the glory of God and the coming of his Kingdom. Therefore, I implore you to assist me, especially – in the adoration of God and of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar – in the contemplation of the word and the salvific works of God – in the imitation of Christ and in the love of his Cross in a spirit of expiation – in the faithful fulfillment of my mission within the Church, serving humbly after the example of Mary, my heavenly Mother, your Queen. And you, my good guardian angel, who continually behold the face of our Father in heaven, God entrusted me to you from the very beginning of my life. I thank you with all my heart for your loving care. I commit myself to you and promise you my love and fidelity. I beg you: protect me against my own weakness and against the attacks of the wicked spirits; enlighten my mind and my heart so that I may always know and accomplish the will of God; and lead me to union with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We are to live in reality and not according to illusions. What is reality? God is love. What are the Implications of the fact that God is love? The nature of love is to give itself as a gift to do what is good for others. So God creates the world and gives us his life at the beginning, on the cross, and in baptism. What more could we want?  He makes us his children, and he is our Father.  Our Father is All-Good: Trust him. Abandon yourself to him with audacious confidence. He can only do good for you, there is no other option. So love him in return. Do all of the little and big duties and tasks of daily life for the love of God. Accept all that you cannot change with trust and love for God.  Offer it for the good of other souls. Work with God to get them to heaven. This is what Jesus lived for 30 years.  Thérèse of Lisieux was a little soul, indeed. Still, from the time of her youth, she had bold desires: She wanted to become a saint, and not just any saint, but a great saint. A story from her childhood helps us understand this — a story she calls “a summary of my whole life.” One day, Thérèse’s older sister Leonie had decided she’d outgrown some of her playthings. So she offered to her little sisters, Céline and Thérèse, a basket full of such items. Céline chose one item that pleased her. But when it came to Thérèse’s turn, the future saint suddenly exclaimed, “I choose all!” and proceeded to take the entire basket. That story expresses well how Thérèse approached the spiritual life and the path to sanctity in particular. She understood that “there were many degrees of perfection” and she wanted the highest degree, saying to the Lord, “My God, I choose all! … ‘I choose all’ that You will!” Later, Thérèse would express her bold desires for holiness in an even more audacious way, saying that she wanted to love God even more than Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite Doctor of the Church! However, she also realized her weakness and littleness. And so, for Thérèse, saints like the great Teresa of Avila were like eagles, soaring on the heights of holiness; whereas, she simply saw herself as a weak little bird without strength and unable to fly. In fact, she readily admitted, “I am not an eagle.” Nevertheless, she went on to explain, “but I have … an eagle’s EYES AND HEART.” Then, she continued, “[So,] in spite of my extreme littleness I still dare to gaze upon [the Lord], and my heart feels within it all the aspirations of an Eagle.” Such is the boldness that led Thérèse to discover the Little Way. I have always wanted to be a saint....I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched, then, in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: “Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me.” And so I succeeded. I felt I had found what I was looking for. … The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more." He makes us his father. We our his children. Abandon yourself to him with audacious confidence. He can only do good for you. There is no other option. Love him in return. Do all of the little and big duties and tasks of daily life for the love of God. Accept all that you cannot change with trust and love for God. Offer it for the good of other souls. Work with God to get them to Heaven. 

1 Peter 5:8 Be calm but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. In this spiritual battle the is a very important alliance between Mary, the Queen of the Universe and St. Michael the Archangel. The Book of Revelation 12 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown…Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron scepter, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne…And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him…Let the heavens rejoice and all who live there; but for you, earth and sea, trouble is coming - because the devil has gone down to you in a rage, knowing that his days are numbered.’ …Then the dragon was enraged with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, that is, all who obey God's commandments and bear witness for Jesus. St Faustina experienced the help of St. Michael: “September 29. On the feast of St Michael the Archangel, I saw by my side that great Leader, who spoke these words to me – ‘The Lord has ordered me to take special care of you. Know that you are hated by evil; but do not fear – Who is like God!’. And he disappeared. But I feel his presence and assistance.” (Diary of St Faustina, para.706) “O glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, defend us in battle, and in the struggle which is ours against the Principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against spirits of evil in high places (Eph 6:12). Come to the aid of men, whom God created immortal, made in his own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil (Wis 2:23-24, 1 Cor 6:20). Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. But that cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with all his angels (Rev 12:7-9). “Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of man has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of his Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity. “These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions (Lam 3:15). Arise then, O invincible prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and bring them the victory. Amen.”

The Devil is the absolute destroyer, his goal is to divide and conquer by turning man against God and man against man. The weapons he uses is to sow doubt in us toward God the Father and to sow fear, hatred and polarization between husbands and wives, families and nations. Look around and we see precisely this at every level. There are human actors but this is first and foremost a spiritual war fought between spiritual beings, God, angels and demons. St Paul describes this in Ephesians 6:10 If this was not Sunday we would be celebrating today, September 29, the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. But since we are inundated with the powers of darkness in the world and in the Church I want to reflect on the often forgotten and vital role of St. Michael the Archangel, the Prince or Leader of the Spiritual Army of Angels. The Book of Revelation 12:7, Describes a great battle between Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, the devil and his demons. This conflict began with the creation of the angels and it rages to this day and until the end of the world. St. Basil (Hom. de angelis) and other Greek Fathers place St. Michael over all the angels; they say he is called "archangel" because he is the prince or leader of the other angels. In 1884 Pope Leo XIII had celebrated a morning Mass, he went to a meeting with the Cardinals. Suddenly he collapsed into unconsciousness. The doctors who came to his aid found no cause for the collapse, although his pulse almost ceased. Suddenly he awoke and was fresh as ever. He reported that he had seen a terrible vision in which the Devil and his demons would be unleashed in the later half of the 20th and first part of the 21st century as a punishment for sinful humanity. He was granted to see the devil’s seductiveness and ravaging for the coming ages in all lands. In this distress St. Michael the Archangel appeared and cast Satan with all his demons back into Hell. Seeing that we needed the help of the Angelic Army and especially its leader St. Michael, Pope Leo XIII composed the Prayer to St Michael and then commanded it be prayed at the end of every Mass throughout the world perpetually. The entire Church prayed the prayer of St. Michael after every Mass until 1968. Then for some unknown, and demonic reason we abruptly stopped, and literally all hell broke loose in the late 60’s with no-fault divorce, contraception, abortion, the sexual revolution, the breakdown of the family, rampant drug use and the rapid inculcation of Marxist ideologies in our government and education system. I think we need to turn back to St. Michael! On Oct 13, 1973, Mary the Mother of God at the Approved apparition of Akita Japan warned of the impending dangers for the Church "The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. "The demon will be relentless against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them" "Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamites which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved." Am I really preparing myself each day for this spiritual battle by meditation and a resolution, examination of conscience, the frequent reception of the Eucharist and  Confession? What is the meaning of spiritual battle and how am I caring out my mission within my spiritual battles? 

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of St. Vincent DePaul. His life is a striking example of Divine Providence, the way God works all things for good for those who love him. Vincent lived from 1576-1660. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1600 but did not finish his studies until Oct 1604. When he graduated, he was saddled with a large student loan debt. Nothing changes right! In 1605 the good news reached him that a family friend had died and left him some money to pay for his debt for which he had to go ship to Marseilles through the Mediterranean. In 1605, Vincent returning to by ship and was taken captive by Barbary or Muslim pirates, who took him to Tunis. There, De Paul was auctioned off as a slave. His first master was a fisherman, but Vincent was unsuitable for this line of work due to sea-sickness and was soon sold. His next master was alchemist and inventor. Upon the Alchemists death, Vincent was sold again. His new master was a former Franciscan priest from Nice, France, who had converted to Islam in to gain his freedom from slavery and was living in the mountains with three wives. The second wife, a Muslim by birth, was drawn to and visited Vincent in the fields especially when she heard Vincent singing the Hail, Holy Queen, and she questioned him about his faith. She became convinced that his faith was true and admonished her husband for renouncing his Christianity. Her husband became remorseful and decided to escape back to France with his slave. They waited ten months, but finally they secretly boarded a small boat and crossed the Mediterranean, landing in France in June 1607, more than two years of slavery. Through all of this God was working. After DePaul returned to France he became a Parish Priest and continued his spiritual formation under Fr. Pierre de Bérulle, who was one of the greatest Marian Mystics and Theologians at the time. Bérulle assigned Vincent to serve as a chaplain and tutor to the Gondi family. Preaching a mission to the peasants, who were slaves for all intents and purposes, reminded him of his own harsh captivity and he was inspired to direct all his efforts to the poor. In 1617, Vincent contacted the Daughters of Charity and they then introduced him to poor families. Vincent then brought them food and comfort. He organized these wealthy women of Paris to collect funds for missionary projects, founded hospitals, and gather relief funds for the victims of war and to ransom 1,200 galley slaves from North Africa. St. Vincent DePaul founded the Confraternities of Charity, the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. St. Vincent’s work has developed into 268 charitable organizations in 132 countries, serving 100s of millions of people each year. However, without his own experience of enslavement, I wonder if Vincent would have done so much good? The world and our lives are not governed by random chaotic forces nor are they controlled by evil and stupid people. The World and our lives are in the hands of an all good, all powerful and loving Father who is guiding all things that happen to us for our greatest good and the greatest good of our loved ones. An I emphatically mean ALL things, even our own stupid or sinful choices, as I said yesterday. God allowed or permitted St. Vincent DePaul to be captured and made a slave for two years to bring about an even greater good – that Vincent would be moved by this experience and the grace of God to serve countless poor and slaves and to inspire 400 years of charitable work in his wake. There are two parts of the Doctrine Divine Providence: The first is that God is so All-Powerful and Good that He can work All things, and I mean everything to our greatest good. The second part is that we will only benefit from the Providence of God if we cooperate with Him and do our part – responding with Faith, Hope and Love.

Divine Providence is the way God guides all things with Wisdom, Love and Power to reach the purpose for which he designed them. CCC 321 This is so liberating – see – last night I was feeling like a caged animal because I can’t exercise with this muscular skeletal problem that causes breathing issues – but I thought – sure I can do some simple exercises – so I did and it was simple – and it was dumb as…because I cant breathe today. Idiot, idiot, idiot…Why do I do such stupid things. Then I reflected on the multiplicity of stupid and even worse sinful things I say and do: idiot, idiot, idiot. But even my stupidity and even my sin are not more powerful than the Providence of God who works all things, even my stupid choices, and my sins for my good if I love Him. Oh there are consequences, physical, moral and spiritual, but we never have cause for despair because God can even work our bad decision and even our sinful decisions for our greater good and the greater good of others and the whole world. That doesn’t give me license to do stupid or sinful things, but it does mean that I don’t have to be perfect. I can be imperfect with the will to better and God will take care of the rest. Excessive sadness and discouragement over our bad decisions are not good and we must not view our own faults too tragically because God is able to draw good from them. Thérèse of the Child Jesus loved greatly this phrase of Saint John of the Cross: “Love is able to profit from everything, the good as well as the bad that It finds in me, and to transform it into Itself.” Our confidence in God must go at least that far: to believe that He is good enough and powerful enough to draw good from everything, including our faults and our infidelities. When he cites the phrase of Saint Paul, Everything works together for the good of those who love God, Saint Augustine adds: “even sins”! Of course, we must struggle energetically against sin and correct our imperfections. When we have been the cause of some evil, we must also try to rectify it to the extent that this is possible. But we must not distress ourselves excessively regarding our faults because God, once we return to Him with a contrite heart, is able to cause good to spring forth, if only to make us to grow in humility and to teach us to have a little less confidence in our own strength and a little more in Him alone. So great is the mercy of the Lord that He uses our faults to our advantage! Ruysbroek, a Flemish mystic of the Middle Ages, has these words: “The Lord, in His clemency, wanted to turn our sins against themselves and in our favor; He found a way to render them useful, to convert them in our hands into instruments of salvation. This should in no way diminish our fear of sinning, nor our pain at having sinned. Rather, our sins have become for us a source of humility.” Let us add also that they can just as well become a source of tenderness and mercy toward others. I, who fall so easily, how can I permit myself to judge my brother? How can I not be merciful toward him, as the Lord has been toward me? Accordingly, after committing a fault of whatever kind, rather than withdrawing into ourselves indefinitely in discouragement and dwelling on the memory, we must immediately return to God with confidence and even thank Him for the good that His mercy will be able to draw out of this fault! We must know that one of the weapons that the devil uses most commonly to prevent souls from advancing toward God is precisely to try to make them lose their peace and discourage them by the sight of their faults… Let us understand this: For the person of goodwill, that which is serious in sin is not so much the fault in itself as the despondency into which it places him. He who falls but immediately gets up has not lost much. He has rather gained in humility and in the experience of mercy.

We have been reflecting on Charity, the virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Our standard for charity towards those around us is God’s love. In fact, Christ explicitly gave us this standard, saying, “A new commandment I give you: love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34), that is, selflessly and sacrificially. Consequently, whether we have genuine charity for our neighbors depends on whether we’re willing to give selflessly and sacrificially for their sakes. Notice that Our Lord doesn’t offer this principle as advice, but as a commandment; we’re obliged to love selflessly and sacrificially. As Christians, we’re obliged to spend time with people we don’t enjoy, to be kind to our enemies, to give generously to the poor, to strive for reconciliation with estranged family members, and to show our affection for people we don’t get along with. The Virtue of Charity means practicing the Works of Mercy, both bodily and spiritual. The seven corporeal works of mercy are those which care for the bodily wants of our brothers and sisters. They are: Feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, ransoming the captive, caring for the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. The chief opportunity for us to lend material aid to those in need is in giving alms; our financial donations are a critical aspect of fraternal charity, and a work pleasing to God. The spiritual works of mercy are those which promote the welfare of souls. They are instructing, counseling, admonishing, comforting, praying for the living and the dead, forgiving willingly, and bearing wrongs patiently. While it is necessary to do all we can to ensure that all people have the basic physical necessities there is the CCC states “another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,"…There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" (CCC 2835) People come to God through other people.  It is your responsibility to help your spouse, kids, and friends into a deep friendship with Jesus, and you will be held accountable for this just as we are held accountable to take care of the poor, first in our own families and then beyond. This is why it is so necessary and so fulfilling to cultivate a way life of Invitation, Hospitality, Friendship, Good Conversation and inviting others to Pray the Rosary with us. So whom should you love? Christians are supposed to love everybody, but remember that virtue is ordered love, and there’s an order to our love of neighbor as well. When you’re prioritizing your love, the two main things to consider are a person’s need and relationship to you. After that, you go based on whatever other circumstances make you more closely connected to one person rather than another. First we need to consider a person’s relationship to us. God has designed us to feel a greater affection for those nearest to us. We have a natural affection for our family, our friends, our coworkers. This phenomenon isn’t just some evolutionary, tribalistic, adaptive trait: it’s God’s way of encouraging us to love those around us, those with whom we’re likely to come into close contact. God doesn’t want us loving coldly, abstractly, at a distance: He wants us to love the people in front of us, with us in our lives. And so He makes it pleasing to love those to whom we’re more closely connected. Second, consider helping others a source of joy. Because it gives joy, and it forces you to stop obsessing about your own issues, when you help people who are really in need.

If Charity is to do something for the happiness of someone else, then what would please God, what would make Him happy? What matters most to God is the salvation of souls. This is what motivated Him to become one of us, suffer and die: God loves souls and wants to save them. If we want to do something for God, something for the love of Him, then we should do all we can to help Him save souls. And there are many simple things we can do for the love of God and for the salvation of souls. Each morning in the Morning Offering I shared with you yesterday, we can offer up and unite our prayer, work, joy and suffering to Jesus to help Him save souls. In this way we become God’s fellow workers, as Paul says in 1 Cor 3:9. Did you do your morning offering today or is all that stuff going to be wasted? The second way you can do something for the love and good of God and to make him happy is the be an apostle of friendship and the Rosary. The world is rampant with loneliness and a loss of meaning and purpose. What the world needs is: 1) Families helping families, people helping people, you help your own family,  2) Live the virtue of hospitality, friendship and the art of good conversation, 3) Have a consistent but flexible spiritual schedule and Invite others to join you, and 4) Ask the Holy Spirit for Wisdom, courage and humility. Have a consistent but flexible spiritual schedule and invite others to join you. In the mid 90’s when my kids were very small I would begin each day praying the Rosary by myself. One day the Lord said to me clearly, ”Michael, if you pray the Rosary by yourself everyday, how will your wife and kids pray the Rosary? Change your schedule and invite them to pray it with you.” I changed, and since 1995 we have prayed the Rosary as family every night, no matter where we are or what we are doing. Xavier now lives with 4 buddies at KU and every night at 9, they pray the Rosary together. I don’t care what you do for your spiritual practices, that is up to you, but do something that is consistent with some flexibility, and then invite your wife, your kids or friends into it. For your personal family, there is the opportunity every night, or a few days a week. Try something once a week like a Sunday brunch or on a Sunday evening invite people over. But make it a consistent time and place and build a habit. Live the virtue of hospitality, friendship and the art of good conversation. Stop making the phone, computer or tv the focus of your attention. Make God and other people the focus of your attention. Set up your house so that you can have an atmosphere of hospitality, friendship and good conversation in your kitchen, living room, deck, garage, by the pool – wherever. Invite people into this space, offer them something to drink or eat. Then be interested in their life. Ask them what they think about this or that; Ask them what they are listening to on podcast; ask them what their favorite band is currently or the last good movie or book? Ask them to share what they liked about it. Our world is dying for friendship and meaningful conversation. Be apostles of friendship and good conversation. Give the world what it needs. Ask God for the supernatural gifts of wisdom and courage. Then pay attention to whatever God inspires in your heart and then take action. If you ask, ask with the confidence God answers and when inspirations come, do not ignore them, act on them God planted a desire in my heart. Here we are, 13 months and about 3500 people a day praying the Rosary. Then I felt inspired to take it on the Road. I threw the idea out there and here I am at someone’s house 3-4 times a week. Have the courage and the humility to start. God can work with something. But if you are unwilling to start, to take action, then God has nothing to work with. If you do nothing, then God can do nothing through you.

There are, St. Augustine tells us, two basic alternatives in this life: either we can love self to the point of forgetting God, or we can love God to the point of forgetting ourselves. The first choice results in the self-exclusion of heaven otherwise known as hell; the second – Heaven and eternal joy. How could a person choose hell? I mentioned this the other day but I want to build on it - Because of Original Sin we have a fallen human nature. Now, instead of our passions or feelings propelling us toward good and away from evil they do just the opposite – we have a strong attraction to sin and an aversion for the things of God. This condition puts us in great danger. God will not force us to choose him. We must freely choose friendship with him. But in our fallen state, we have this aversion to the things of God and are drawn to sin. If we do not reverse this trend it will grow stronger until death, at which time we will still have an aversion to Him and reject Him. This is why we need to practice the virtue of Charity – the virtue of choosing God for God’s sake. There is a powerful Image of our Particular Judgment from CS Lewis book The Last Battle. Aslan the Lion, the who represents Jesus Christ, comes to Judge all the creatures of Narnia. Behind him stood all the stars so that Aslan’s huge black shadow streamed away to his left. As the creatures came rushing on, they came right up to Aslan. One of two things happened to each of them. They all looked straight in his face, and when some looked, the expression of their faces changed terribly. For some, it was fear and hatred.  They did not find in Aslan what they wanted. They swerved to His left and disappeared into His huge black shadow – an image of hell. But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him. They found in Aslan what they had always wanted loved and sought. All these swerved to His right, into the light of Heaven. If at death the soul has spent its life seeking and choosing God, loving God, then it gets what it wanted – union with God in heaven.. On the other hand, if a soul has spent its life choosing itself over and against God and neighbor, then at death it gets what it wanted: Itself and that is All! (That is Hell).  As we said before, there are two basic alternatives in this life: either we can love self to the point of forgetting God, or we can love God to the point of forgetting ourselves. We want, therefore, to build the habit of loving God to the point of forgetting ourselves - this is the virtue of Charity Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. With charity, we are saying to God, I love you; I want your good; I want to do something for you Lord. Jesus I want to offer you a gift. Now this may sound crazy because what can you give God that he does not already have? Well, there is something he does not already have fully – and that is you. God is waiting for you to give yourself totally to him. It is hard to do it all at once, so we can begin by making the habit of giving ourselves to him in little ways each day and this builds the habit of giving ourselves to him completely. Begin each day with the Morning Offering by which we give to God our prayer, work, joy and suffering “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.” Amen. Throughout the day renew the offering of our prayer, work, joy and suffering by saying, “Jesus I offer this to you; Jesus I accept that for the love of you.”

From the earliest days of the Church the faithful had the habit of praying a series of Our Fathers, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s. St. Dominic was is unique in the way he used the Rosary as a powerful tool of evangelization. The great Dominican theologian, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: At the end of the 12th century southern France was ravaged by the Albigensian heresy – a heresy which denied the infinite goodness and power of God by admitting a principle of evil which was often victorious…It was at that moment that Our Blessed Lady made known to St. Dominic a kind of preaching till then unknown, which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties. Under her inspiration, St Dominic went into the villages of the Albigensians, gathered the people, and preached to them the mysteries of salvation — the Incarnation, the redemption, eternal life. As Mary had taught him to do, he distinguished the different kinds of mysteries, and after each short instruction, he had ten Hail Mary’s recited… And what the word of the preacher was unable to do, the sweet prayer of the Hail Mary did for hearts. As Mary promised, it proved to be a most fruitful form of preaching. St. Dominic went into villages, gathered people, shared with them the teachings of Jesus. After each short instruction, he had ten Hail Mary’s recited. And what the word of the preacher was unable to do, the sweet prayer of the Hail Mary did for hearts. As Mary promised, it proved to be a most fruitful form of preaching. Furthermore, Mary said this method would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties. Well we face many errors spread by the devil through the world and we face many difficulties. Maybe Our Lady is calling us to use the same method, and by accident or inspiration, that is exactly what we are doing. We invite family and friends to join us in our homes, offer hospitality, a meal, drinks, coffee, dessert, we engage in good conversation, and then we invite them to pray the Rosary with us. But we pray the Rosary in a new way that is actually a really old way – introduced by St. Dominic of sharing a short teaching from the Word of God, the teaching of Jesus, and then we pray one decade of the Rosary – and we do this five times, and then the conversation can continue by asking one another what struck us during the meditations. So you can listen to the audio Rosary I send out or you can print the short teaching, read it aloud and pray the decades in between each teaching. Whatever you like. It worked for St. Dominic and Our Lady promised it would work in the future. St. John Paul II in his letter on the Rosary writes: The Rosary is also a path of proclamation and increasing knowledge, in which the mystery of Christ is presented again and again at different levels of the Christian experience. Its form is that of a prayerful and contemplative presentation, capable of forming Christians according to the heart of Christ. When the recitation of the Rosary combines all the elements needed for an effective meditation, (especially when family and friends are gathered together), it can present a significant catechetical opportunity which we should use to advantage. In this way too Our Lady of the Rosary continues her work of proclaiming Christ. The history of the Rosary shows how this prayer was used in particular by the Dominicans at a difficult time for the Church due to the spread of heresy. Today we are facing new challenges. Why should we not once more have recourse to the Rosary, with the same faith as those who have gone before us? The Rosary retains all its power and continues to be a valuable resource for every good evangelizer. Padre Pio said: "Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary."

What prevents us from perfect Joy is Self-Reliance. When everything is going well, when we have it all under control, and there is no major crisis, we fall into the bad habit of self-reliance. We think, "I got this…" This is known as the deadly sin of Pride.  Crisis. Then something happens which removes our apparent ability to control things Some examples include: Loss of health. loss of a spouse, problems at work, in marriage, or with a kid. This crisis can leave us dazed and bewildered.  We can’t make sense out of it. We can’t control or solve the problem, and everything is dark. We become lost and paralyzed. We experience anger, fear, sorrow and even despair – these are normal human emotions.  So we have to assess and weigh options. We try to understand what is going on, then make a plan to solve the problem. It is normal to ask “What is going on? Why is this happening?” Ultimately there are two options: Option 1: Chaos and Despair Everything that happens is the result of billions of humans making free choices, like everyone trying to drive through an intersection at once with no lights, and random chaotic forces in nature. In the end it is all just chaos. The world and my life are governed by nothing but random chaos: We come from chaos, our lives are full of chaos, and we descend back to chaos after death. In response to chaos we can try to control everything, or despair from being overwhelmed by fear and anxiety which leads us to numb the fear and pain through distraction by means of entertainment, pot, alcohol, etc. Option 2: Trust in the Providence of God: God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, of all that is visible and Invisible. He orders all things for good (even the free, stupid and sinful decisions of men, even the apparently chaotic forces of nature). Romans 8:28 "We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him." The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth: In letter, John of the Cross writes: “Do not let what is happening to me…cause you any grief, for it does not cause me any…Men do not do these things, but God, who knows what is suitable for us and arranges things for our good. Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out… Letter 26 St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind." St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: "Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best." Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time - that 'all manner [of] thing shall be well.'" Our Response to the Providence of God: Faith, surrender, and to rest in the providence of God. John of the Cross encourages us to view all the struggles and difficulties of life as coming from the hand of God, for the persons good.  This is the Remedy to all our problems: Be responsible, and do things to change your situation for the better. But don't fall into the trap of self-reliance or control. Instead, turn to Jesus and Mary in prayer. Give thanks for every moment, and live in the present. Abandon all future moments to God, since you cannot predict them. And lastly, pray the Rosary constantly. 

We must begin with the distinction between hope and charity because I have hope and very little charity. Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the Holy Spirit. Hope is the desire for one’s own happiness. And since nothing in this world is perfect, lasting or enough, then our hope is the proper love of self that motivates us to do what we need to achieve perfect and lasting happiness through union with God and heaven. Hope as the desire for happiness propels us to get rid of our vice and sin which destroys union with God, and practice virtue, spend time in prayer, receive the sacraments, learn what Jesus revealed through Scripture and Tradition and so on…so that we can reach union with God. With hope I want my good, my happiness and so I stop doing the things that destroy happiness (sin) and I make a habit out of those things that bring lasting happiness. With hope I desire my own happiness. Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. With hope I want my good, my happiness. Charity is based on wanting the good, the happiness of someone else. With Hope I say, “I want my good.” With charity I say, “I want your good.” Italians have a beautiful way of saying I love you, they say “Ti voglio bene.” I want your good. In the theological virtue of charity, we are saying to God, I love you; I want your good; I want to do something to make you happy O Lord. I am good about desiring and striving after my own happiness. I am bad at charity. I rarely think of doing something just for the good or the happiness of God. Since I don’t think about the love of God as much as I should maybe we should begin with basics. The first way we can love God is by keeping the commandments. Jesus said If you love me you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 But Jesus knows the 10 are just an outline of the complexity of life so he went on to say in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21) It is pretty easy to keep the broad strokes of the 10 Commandments. How are we doing on the finer points? Are we loving God when it comes to pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust, gossip, judgmental thoughts and words, what we consider small lies, drunkenness, pornography? If we want to be clear on how to love God, we should read paragraphs 2083-2557 of the CCC. In 1 Cor 13:4 Paul gives us a good short list of what we should do to love God: Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. You are God's chosen race, his saints; he loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these…, to keep them together and complete them, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body. Always be thankful. (Galatians 3:12) 

Today and tomorrow we will reflect on the virtue of Charity because I do not understand it at all; even more, I don’t live charity toward God and neighbor. So here we go. The two chief characteristics of God’s love are selflessness and sacrifice.  Consequently, in the virtue of Charity, our love must embody these two attributes. Of course, the fact that we must be selfless does not imply that we can never consider our own needs and desires. The virtue of hope is founded on fulfilling one’s own need: “I want to get to Heaven; I need to get to Heaven.” Hope is the desire for supernatural good insofar as it will make oneself happy. This is totally appropriate, but it also needs to be complemented by charity, which is the desire for supernatural good insofar as it’s something that’ll make God and neighbor happy. To have a proper understanding of selflessness, we need to first distinguish between two kinds of love. Love itself can be a difficult idea to get a handle on, given how many kinds there are and how often we use the word “love” with no reflection on its precise significance. The broadest definition of love is: To want some good for someone. Pretty much every time someone uses the word “love” it involves a movement towards some good thing for some person. But there are two ways to want some good for someone. The first way is wanting some good for yourself. Phrases like “I love coffee,” “I love the mountains,” “I love the Kansas City Chiefs,” all describe this first kind of love. It’s based on wanting one’s own happiness. But there’s another kind of love which involves wanting some good for someone else. So, for example, if I were to say, “I love my son; I’d do anything for him,” it would indicate that what I desire is for my son to be happy. Examples of this second love are the way all parents are supposed to love their children, the way Mother Teresa loved the poor, or the way we should all love our enemies. It doesn’t refer to concern for our own enjoyment, but rather a willingness to work for someone else’s fulfillment. Again, these two loves, the first of which is self-focused and the second of which is other-focused, are complementary. Ideally, one should experience both. Consider the love between a husband and wife. When the man says, “I love you,” to the woman, he normally means a) “You make me happy,” and b) “I will try to make you happy.” If, on the other hand, all love were to be reduced to the first kind of statement, that is, to self-focused love, then the love doesn’t mean very much, and it’ll eventually collapse just as soon as one of the parties doesn’t feel like he’s getting anything out of the relationship. Living out Charity always demands sacrifice. If you’ve ever made someone else’s happiness a priority, you know it isn’t easy.  In fact, the proof of charity is measured by sacrifice. If we have a selfless love for God and neighbor, we’ll be willing to suffer in order to serve them. That’s the ultimate test of love, as Our Lord Himself states, “No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). What does all this mean practically?  How can we concretely practice a selfless and sacrificial love?  Well, the first step is to stop thinking about our faith, our religion, and our lives as Catholics as if it was just about us. We have to keep in mind that our number-one purpose in life is to serve God, to please Him. So we shouldn’t evaluate our spiritual life based on whether we get anything out of it. Many people do this; they quit praying, or going to confession, or going to mass, because “it wasn’t doing anything for them.” That’s an indication that they’re lacking the virtue of charity, that their relationship with God is fundamentally selfish.

We have reflected on the three powers of the soul: the intellect, will and passions. The passions are the God-given desires, feelings, or emotions designed to propel us toward what is good and away from what is evil. There are eleven fundamental passions: Love, desire, joy, hate, aversion, sorrow, hope, despair, fear, courage and anger. Because of Original Sin we have a fallen human nature. Now, instead of our feelings and desires propelling us toward good and away from evil they do just the opposite – we have a strong attraction to sin and an aversion, a dislike for the things of God. This is one reason it is so hard to spend time in prayer and we would almost like to do anything else. This condition puts us in great danger. God will not force us to choose him. We must freely choose friendship with him. But in our fallen state, we have this aversion to the things of God and a strong attraction to sin. If we do not reverse this trend it will grow stronger until we see God at death, at which time we still have an aversion to Him, and we might reject Him. Well, how could someone see God and not want him? The rich young man in Matthew 19, the Samaritan Village in Luke 9 and the Pharisees upon seeing with their own eyes Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, all rejected Him. Why? Because they had the habit of an aversion for the things of God and a stronger attraction to sinful things of this world. Vice is to be attracted to sin and an aversion to good, to the things of God. Virtue is the habit of being attracted to good and an aversion to evil. So how do we change our vice to virtue – that is the point to today’s meditation. So how do you get virtue? How do you get your feelings to pull you the right way? There are two complementary techniques: The first is resisting misdirected feelings. This is sometimes called checking the passions, or, more commonly, “fake it till you make it.” If you do the right thing, over and over, eventually your urges will get in line. Most people don’t start out liking exercise, but if they keep at it they begin to look forward to their morning run. People usually don’t start out enjoying prayer, but if they pray anyway, day after day, they get to the point where they can’t do without it. The same goes for abstaining from bad behavior you’re inclined to: if you have a habitually dirty mouth, you’ll want to say horrible things when you get angry – but if you resist that urge long enough, you’ll get to the point where you’re accustomed to clean speech, and where you hate the sound of profanity and vulgarity. The second technique is to mentally focus on pleasing aspect of what's good and displeasing aspects of what's bad. This is sometimes called commanding the passions. You can use St. James’ image, about how a small flame – unworthy talk – can burn down a whole forest of good. Whatever image works to help you realize how deadly gossip is, use that, focus on that, picture that. And eventually your desire to gossip will wane. In any case what you want to remember is that your emotions are, to some degree, under your control. They are voluntary “either from being commanded by the will, or from not being checked by the will.” So it doesn’t work to just say, “Well, that’s just the way I feel,” or “There’s nothing I can do about how I feel.” The whole point of virtue is that there is something you can do about how you feel, which means you can come to delight in both the fruits and the process of acting well. Then read, reflect, and resolve. If you practice meditation and a resolution every day, you will grow in your desire for God and the habit of choosing Him. If you don’t, you will grow in your aversion for God and you will choose sin and reject God. Now you choose!

The connection between joy and the commandments is counter-intuitive to many people in modern culture. And yet that connection is laid out plainly in the Scriptures. The very first Psalm describes the just man as one to whom God’s law is delightful: “the law of the Lord is his joy he finds pleasure in the Law of God” (Psalm 1:2). Not his “obligation,” but his joy. Christ Himself reaffirms this connection for His disciples: “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11). Why is the commandment of the Lord a source of joy? Because joy comes from fulfilling our design, and God’s commandment reveals our design. When my children were somewhere between one and two years old, they all developed a taste for the woodchips that cover the ground at most of the local playgrounds. Whenever I caught them putting a woodchip in their mouth, I take it away and say, “Don’t eat that.” That’s my law: don’t eat woodchips. Of course, they didn’t get it, and thought I was being mean. But that’s just because they didn’t understand their own internal structure as well as I do. I knew they would get more pleasure, more delight, from not choking to death or trying to digest a massive splinter. And my law, even if they didn’t’ realize it, expressed the way they are made and the way to be happy. So it’s no surprise to me that God’s first law to His children in the Garden of Eden was, “Don’t eat that; it could kill you.” And it’s no surprise that they didn’t understand, and disobeyed, and that the disobedience made them miserable. Because there’s an intrinsic relationship between a) God’s commandments; b) human design; and c) joy. Let me give one more example: The Church, reflecting on the nature of human sexuality, understands that our design is such that marriage, sex and babies must go together and in that order. Furthermore, the sexual union of the spouses and their fertility must not be ripped apart. The self-gift of sexuality will be distorted and frustrated if we deliberately do something to rip fertility out of the act. This is a truth of our design, and it can be expressed in a commandment: contraception is immoral. Not owing to my own intelligence or virtue, but thanks to a good friend who gave me a book on the Churches teaching on Marriage and contraception, and because I have faith in Christ and His Church, we never used contraception in our marriage. And I can honestly say that my kids have probably given me as much joy as anything else in my life. Which means that now, I don’t just understand or obey the commandment – I rejoice in it. The Church’s law on contraception has been a source of joy. Again, the main point: God’s commandment expresses our design, and acting according to our design gives lasting, permanent joy. The goal isn’t just to experience joy as an outcome of following God’s law, but to experience joy in the process of following God’s law. And the only way that happens is when you have virtue. Consider an example of growing in excellence and delight precisely by being docile to instructions that may not seem to make much sense at first: learning to play piano. When you start to take piano lessons, the whole thing feels artificial and restrictive. You have to hold your hands a certain way, repeat unpleasant-sounding scales over and over, learn how to correlate little black dots with letters with the keys, etc... None of it feels related to what you want to do on the piano, which is just play music you like. But if you stick with it, if you submit to “the rules” of music and piano training, one day you might wake up and find yourself an artist.

Many of you know I have been suffering for 41/2 years an unexplainable muscular skeletal issue that affects my breathing. Today, I am worn out with it. So I have been reflecting on my need for the virtue of patience. The virtue of patience enables us to bear physical and moral sufferings without being overwhelmed by sorrow. If we suffer well our reward in heaven will immeasurably surpass the pain in this life but we may be in danger of losing our reward because we fail to exercise the virtue of patience. In fact, we suffer even more than we would have, because we don’t conform our will to the will of God. Patience harnesses the emotions of anger and sorrow to help us take advantage of the good of suffering that purifies us of disordered attachments, increases our Faith, Hope and Love which is our capacity to receive the life of God, and leverage our suffering to help save souls and change world events. Paul writes in Col. 1:24 I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church. 5 reasons to practice the virtue of patience: 1. Patience helps us conform our will to the loving will of God, who knows better than we the things that are good for us and therefore sometimes sends us suffering and tribulation. 2. The recollection of the suffering of Jesus and Mary, incomparable models of patience, and the sincere desire to imitate them. 3. The necessity of making reparation for our sins by the voluntary and virtuous acceptance of suffering in atonement for our sins. 4. To respond to the invitation of Jesus to help him save souls and change world events for good by uniting our suffering to His as Paul said in Col. 1:24 5. The prospect of an eternity of happiness that awaits us if we know how to suffer in patience. The suffering passes, but the fruit of having sanctified our suffering will never pass. 5 Degrees of Patience: 1. Resignation without complaint or impatience to the crosses God sends us or permits to come to us. 2. Peace and serenity in the face of affliction, without any of the sadness or melancholy that accompanies mere resignation. 3. Acceptance of one’s cross for the love of God and to help save souls 4. Complete and total joy, which leads one to give thanks to God for being associated with him in the mystery of the Cross. 5. The folly of the Cross, which prefers suffering to pleasure and places all one’s delight in external suffering by which one is configured to Christ. As St. Teresa of Avila used to say: “To suffer or to die.” 5 Ways to Grow in Patience: 1. Constantly beg God for the gift of patience.  2. Foresee the difficulties we shall encounter on the path of virtue. St. Thomas recommends this practice to all Christians, and especially to those who have not yet acquired the habit of working with fortitude. In this way one gradually overcomes one's fear, and when difficulties actually arise, one will overcome them much more easily because one has anticipated them. 3. Accept with a generous spirit the little annoyances of daily life. 4.  Meditate frequently on the passion and death of Christ. 5.  You can do anything for the one you love so if you want to be better at bearing suffering then increase your love for God and accept your suffering as a way to love Him more. To be be Cheerful or Joyful in suffering is a necessary requirement of Patience. We must preserve cheerfulness and serenity in trial. It’s not enough to endure - we must endure cheerfully.

Joy is the response to something experienced as good, and it invites rest in that good. The final piece of knowledge we need for real joy is self-knowledge, namely, the knowledge that can provide the foundation for humility. In Joseph Pieper’s words, “Humility is man’s estimation of himself according to truth. And that is almost all there is to it.” Joy depends on our knowing the truth about ourselves, I think, for at least four reasons. Knowing who and what we are is helps us to: a) cultivate gratitude; b) not think about ourselves too much; c) appreciate the magnificence of other things; d) resist the urge to feel as though our salvation depends upon ourselves. First, gratitude. Gratitude and a sense of entitlement are diametrically opposed. Have you ever heard someone say “Thank you!” after his insistent demands have finally been met? It doesn’t sound like gratitude – it sounds more like “Well, it’s about time!” You’re not grateful for what you think you’re owed. Gratitude is due to what is given gratuitously. It’s not due to what you claim by right. In fact, you don’t have any absolute rights. Not before God. Because in your native state, you don’t even exist. You’re a sliver of non-being that God took notice of and brought to life – and non-being has no claims on being. Remember Our Lord’s words to Catherine of Sienna: “Do you know, daughter, who you are, and who I am? If you know these two things you will be blessed. You are she who is not; whereas I am He who is.” And not only are you absolutely dependent upon God for your existence, you are a sinner! Apart from God, you’re nothing, and then when God lets you participate in being, what do you do? You turn away from Him, you insult Him by preferring to slide back into evil and sin, the shameful non-being of privation.  You aren't owed anything, so everything is a gift.  That brings us to the second way self-knowledge causes joy: it encourages us not to think too much about ourselves. We aren’t a big deal, so we shouldn’t think a great deal about ourselves. Narcissism doesn’t just mean thinking a lot of oneself, it also means thinking about oneself a lot. That’s disproportionate to the truth – you should think the most about the most important things, and you yourself aren’t one of them. So humility doesn’t mean constant self-disparagement: as C.S. Lewis says, if you meet someone who’s really humble, you’ll notice that person “will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” That’s as it should be. Satan wants us to think more about ourselves than about anything else, for the simple reason that it’s not good for us and it makes us miserable. When you know you’re little, you appreciate the magnificence of other things, you refocus your attention on the grandeur of the world beyond yourself. Chesterton tells the story of two boys: one became a titanic giant and the other became as small as a grasshopper. The one who became a giant became bored with everything – the wonders of the world were all toy-sized and unimpressive. The one who became tiny was able to have astonishing adventures everywhere. He appreciated everything, now that he saw how big and rich it all was, but to do that he had to become small first. Humility is simply a sense of scale, and because you no longer dominate every scene, you can appreciate things for what they are. But it also takes the pressure off.You’re not in control, you’re not the major mover in the universe. God is. Which also means you can take peace in leaving your very salvation up to him. This was the secret of St. Philip Neri, one of the most famously joyful of all the saints. It’s recorded that one time he gave a very delightful illustration of how to be miserable and how to be happy:

Redemptive Suffering and the Sacrament of Anointing CCC 1499 By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. And indeed, she exhorts them to contribute to the good of the people of God by freely uniting themselves to the Passion and death of Christ. Romans 8:17, “If we are children (of God) we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.” 2 Corinthians 4:17, “The troubles which are soon over, though they weigh little, train us for the carrying of a weight of eternal glory which is out of proportion to them.” Colossians 1:24, “It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church.” Why does Jesus want us to participate in His suffering? Our suffering can be good for us Our suffering can be good for others CCC 1500 Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest problems confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us glimpse death. 1501 Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt against God. It can also make a person more mature, helping him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can turn toward that which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him. 1505, During his lifetime, Jesus healed many who were sick. “But he did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the ‘sin of the world,’ of which illness is only a consequence. CCC 1505 ends with, “By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion.” CCC 1506 Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn. Matthew 10:38, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.”) By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick.” CCC 1508 Reminds us that we should pray and do all we can medically to be healed. “But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, the Church.” (Colossians 1:24). Cross-Reference 618 speaks of Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice: The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ…the possibility of being made partners in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to take up their cross and follow him, for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example so that we should follow in his steps. In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering. (cf. Mk 10:39, Col 1:24) The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering What do people need to know in suffering? God is all good, all knowing, and all powerful Evil and suffering are not more powerful than God Nothing can happen to you or a loved one that is beyond the power of God to turn it to the greatest good.

Thomas Aquinas wrote that the greatest of all pleasures consists in the contemplation of truth. Now every pleasure assuages pain as stated above: hence the contemplation of truth assuages pain or sorrow, and the more so the more perfectly one is a lover of wisdom. And therefore in the midst of tribulations men rejoice in the contemplation of Divine things and of future Happiness. So the act of careful reflection on ultimate truth is pleasing, and the truth God has revealed enhances that pleasure immeasurably. Furthermore, the only adequate response to a consideration of the goodness of God, and to His boundless extravagance towards us is gratitude. Gratitude can refer either to a feeling of appreciation or to a display towards our benefactor – and where the display is absent the feeling will quickly evaporate. In other words, when you stop saying “thank you,” your pleasure in the things you’ve been given won’t last. What have you been given? Well, of course, there’s what we all have in common: goods of the body (life, food, clean water, a roof over your head, safety and security); goods of the mind (friends and books and music and memory); and goods of the spirit (you have God’s divine life dwelling within you making you truly a son or daughter of God, a partaker in the divine nature, you have a knowledge of the Father’s love, and the prospect of heaven). God gave all this freely – some of it cost Him a slow, torturous death – just so we could enjoy it. But here’s a first suggestion for cultivating gratitude: make your own list. Many of us, when we hear the phrase “count your blessings,” count like a toddler – we maybe thank God for three or four things, and then we quit. Try this instead: take half an hour and a pen and a piece of paper and write down the top twenty or thirty things you’re most grateful for. Then hang on to that list for a while. Keep it in your purse, or your pocket. I’ve done this with a lot of groups, and I always find it makes a complaining or self-pitying attitude much harder to justify throughout the day. Since we tend not to be grateful, we don’t acknowledge our gifts or say “thank you.” This is, according to Aquinas, a failure in justice: we owe God an explicit recognition of His divine generosity. So why do we fail? What are the primary sources of ingratitude? I think the obstacles to habitual thankfulness can be categorized under two headings: a) dissatisfaction with our spiritual condition; b) dissatisfaction with our worldly condition. Dissatisfaction with our spiritual condition. Of course, in one respect, dissatisfaction with our spiritual condition might be interpreted as the proper guard against self-complacency. We do have a lot of work to do in getting rid of vice and being more conformed to Christ, and there’s no sense denying it. On the other hand, focus on our own faults can easily become so consuming that it prevents a more primordial awareness of how much the Lord has done for us – and for the world – already. Dissatisfaction with our worldly condition. If we’re always looking for more money or more health or more security or more praise, we won’t be grateful. If we say “I just need to make it through today, or to the weekend, or the end of the semester, or the next couple years” or “I just need to get a job, or a house, or make it to retirement” or “I just need to get the kids to bed, or get the kids ready for school, or get the kids to college, or get the kids through college,” – as though achieving any of those things would bring us peace and contentment, we won’t be grateful. Let me suggest two practices for growing in gratitude and happiness. First, the greatest way to thank God is to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist. Eucharist literally means a sacrifice of Thanksgiving. Second, begin your day by thanking God in prayer. 

Things that bring true fulfillment we should do; things that leaves us empty, angry and full of anxiety, we should stop doing. The mind was made for truth like the stomach was made for food. And since the mind is higher than the stomach, the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing the truth should be higher than the satisfaction of having a full belly. Knowing the truth, grasping reality, seeing the big ideas that put everything in a new light – now there’s food for the soul! Think about the last time a talk or a book or even a movie “blew your mind.” Probably it wove together large pieces of your experience – stuff that you knew already – and connected them to some larger principle in a way that brought it all together. We gain our knowledge piecemeal, and when we’re able to put the pieces together into a coherent picture, it’s enormously gratifying, one of the most fulfilling experiences. On the other hand, the countless contradictory statements and bits of information we receive in the news, blogs and podcasts (sport stats, random dates, bits of gossip) are not satisfying, they are like bad appetizers and no main course. My mind is hungry for truth but all I get from the news are bits and pieces of garbage. The news gives us a counterfeit to the truth. To be well informed is a counterfeit to real wisdom. We don’t need a bunch of worthless pieces of information, we need wisdom that comes from contemplating a few true ideas that help us grasp reality and live well – so I am on a complete news detox and fast – why – because its is not satisfying, it makes me angry, and gives most people PTSD. St Thomas Aquinas enumerates a variety of remedies for pain and sorrow. But no other remedy receives so strong an endorsement as does the contemplation of truth: “The greatest of all pleasures consists in the contemplation of truth…And therefore in the midst of tribulations men rejoice in the contemplation of Divine things and of future Happiness.” But it’s pretty hard to convince people today that contemplation of truth is pleasurable, let alone that it’s the greatest pleasure there is. Nonetheless, it’s a fact, evident from both the act of contemplation and the content of contemplation. The act of contemplating the truth just means conforming our minds to the way things are. The hand adjusts its shape differently depending on whether it’s grasping a baseball bat, a pencil, or a penny. Likewise, the mind grasps truth when it shapes itself around some reality or some fact. When the intellect latches on to something outside itself and then fits that thing like a glove, it has scored some truth. Take for example Colossians Chapter 3 “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one Body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Now that fits like a glove and satisfies the hunger for truth – that is worth digesting! The desire for knowledge is a constant feature of human life, and the information age has developed countless options for intellectual pleasure in the form of news, blogs, Siri, Wikipedia, TED talks, podcasts, etc. People go to these sources to fight boredom – but boredom can only be fought with pleasure. Which means knowing things is pleasurable. Knowledge is “stimulating,” entertaining, interesting. It’s delightful just to know. The problem, of course, is that the news is an incredibly unreliable way of getting knowledge, truth and a grasp of reality.

Through the approved apparitions of Fatima, Akita Japan, Kibeho Rwanda, San Nicolas Argentina and others God and Our Lady have made it absolutely clear that if enough people answer the call and pray the Rosary, souls can be saved, and world events can be altered. When the 3rd Secret of Fatima, a vision which showed a world in ruins and many souls lost, was revealed publicly in the year 2000, then Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict the XVI, explained in a press conference that the secret was a vision concerning the future, but not a vision that is unchangeably fixed. No, it was just the opposite, the purpose of the vision and why it was revealed in the year 2000 is that is shows us what the future tragically could hold unless we respond to the requests of Our Lady. If we respond, everything can be changed – none of needs to happen. All the tragedy or at least some of it can be averted. He said: In this way, the importance of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image that the children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed. Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore, we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the secret…Rather, the vision speaks of dangers and how we might be saved from them.” Time and time again, God and Our Lady appeal to believers to change world events by means of prayer and sacrifice. When people respond, big things happen. The Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, that we celebrate today, stands as a solemn reminder of this Fact. The question is, will we heed the call of Mary and respond? The Battle of Vienna In 1571 the Muslim Ottoman invaders were driven back in the Battle of Lepanto, due primarily to innumerable people praying the Rosary because the Christian fleet was badly outnumbered and out gunned. I’ll share that story with you on Oct 7, on the Feast of Lady of Victory. With the failed sea invasion, the Muslim Ottoman Empire decided upon another strategy, seeking to conquer Europe and Christianity by land. By 1683, the Islamic forces had surrounded and laid siege to Vienna, the gateway to Western Europe. The leader of the Muslim army was Mustafa Pasha, whose army swelled to 140,000, compared to only 11,000 within the city walls. Obviously, the Viennese were no match. If Vienna fell, nothing would stop the Muslims from sweeping through the rest of Europe. A Religious Sister in Rome named Sister Maria Candida Columba Fachineti wrote Pope Innocent XI on July 19, 1683 of a vision and message she had received from God and Our Lady that 1000’s of Rosaries in honor of Our Lady of Victory must be said in all the Churches in Rome. If this request would be heeded, Mary would save Europe from the invasion of Islam. The Pope and the people responded with countless Rosaries prayed. Pope Innocent XI then appealed to King Jan Sobieski of Poland. He led the most feared cavalry in Europe, called the winged hussars because they had sown eagles feathers to back of their armor and looked like eagles flying as they rode into battle. More importantly, Sobieski was ardently devoted to Mary and the Rosary. When he received word from the pope, he gathered his cavalry and army, went straight to Czestochowa, where the miraculous Icon of the Black Madonna is kept, consecrated themselves to Mary, then marched more than 400 miles, to Vienna. Sobieski ordered his army to pray the Rosary as they journeyed. At the same time Blessed Marco d’Aviano, A Franciscan monk and Chaplin to the Christian army in Vienna encouraged the army and the people of Vienna to resist the Turks by praying the Rosary on each day of the siege.

I want to end this three day reflection on Joy with a distinction between two kinds of love. We’ll call the first existential love, and define it as taking delight in the existence of another. In everyday English, I think we usually express this love as when you “like” somebody, i.e., when that person’s presence gives you pleasure. There’s also what we could call perfective love, which is desiring and working for the fulfillment of another. This is where we dedicate ourselves to helping someone else, whether materially or spiritually. I think it’s crucial for a celebration of existence to realize that God’s existential love is prior to His perfective love. Creation is prior to redemption. God likes us before He saves us. When we say “God loves you,” we don’t just mean that God wants you to be happy, or that He gives everything to free us from sin. Sure He does. But “God loves you” means first of all that God is pleased that you’re here. How do we know? Because if He wasn’t, you wouldn’t be here! Catholic metaphysics is the most psychologically affirming doctrine there is: God is, right now, supplying you with being. God, right now, thinks you make the world a better place. God, right now, is happy that you exist. And nothing you can do or fail to do can change that. (Yes, we sometimes sin, and God isn’t pleased with that. But even if He doesn’t like our sin, He does like that we’re here). So as long as God delights in your being, and in the being of everything else, you might as well delight in your being and in the being of everything else. You might as well take some time to rest. But remember too that God’s love largely manifests itself through other persons. In other words, we need to consider whether our own attitude towards the people around us is reflective of God’s attitude towards us. Let me give an example: with my kids, I really have a difficult time remembering that my first job as a father is to show them how happy I am that they exist. Because I love them, I want them to develop as full human beings, and I spend a lot of time and energy trying to educate them intellectually, morally, and even physically. That’s as it should be. But that can’t be the fundamental relationship – I can’t put perfective love ahead of existential love. They have to know that my love is unconditional, that I’m just happy they exist, and that nothing they do or don’t do can shake my conviction that their presence makes the world (and my life) way better. I consistently need to remind myself to show them first of all my delight in their existence – that I don’t just love them, I like them. I like them a lot. If I do that, they’ll be that much more likely to rest in God’s goodness and in their own. They’ll be that much better equipped to experience delight now and in the next life. The fundamental mission of every parent is to help their children into a committed relationship with Jesus. Likewise, the fundamental mission of every Christian, and I mean all of you, not just the professionals, is to help other people into a committed relationship with Jesus. Wrongly, we think this means we need to convince other people of doctrines or moral truths. We don’t want to do this because if we begin by telling people about doctrines and the moral law, there is a good chance we will be rejected and seen as annoying. With good reason, because it is not the place to start. The place to start is with existential love, taking delight in the existence of another. The place to begin with all people, especially our spouse and kids, is by getting to know and understand them better. If we have a genuine fascination with their lives and demonstrate this with the interest that leads us to ask good questions which turns into good conversation then we have done that person the greatest service by demonstrating to them that they are of immense value just because they are a human person.

Joy is the God-given passion or emotion that prompts us to rest in the good. After I climb the mountain, I want to rest on the summit and take in the beauty of 360-degree view that, makes me realize life is bigger and better than all my projects and problems. This allows me to celebrate reality. Then I can peacefully walk back down the mountain and say, “Life is good.” What do you like to do that makes you realize life is bigger and better than your projects problems, that thing from which you walk away you say, “Life is good?” What do you delight in and how often do you partake of that activity?   If we refuse to rest, or if we’re incapable of it, joy or delight will be frustrated. If when I got to the top of the mountain I did not sit down and take in the view but immediately trudged off back down the mountain, never raising my eyes to see the glorious vistas but set off to find another summit – then I’ve missed the whole point – the goal, which is to delight to have joy in the good, to rest in the good. Where did we get this attachment to busyness and work? Why the incapacity, the almost pathological fear of rest and the insensitivity to the joys of existential celebration? Joseph Pieper suggests celebrating being entails a celebration of one’s own being. But, you can’t rest in the goodness of existence unless you’re convinced that it’s good that you exist, that you are good.  The need for someway to affirm our goodness, our existential validation is universal. Again from Pieper: “What matters to us, beyond mere existence, is the explicit confirmation: It is good that you exist; how wonderful that you are!” One way or another, everyone needs to be convinced that it’s good that they exist. If they think the goodness of their being is in doubt, they will attempt to compensate by the goodness of what they do. But when self-validation is based on doing, not being, the only way to justify oneself is by ceaseless activity.      If you’re standing on the solid ground of existential goodness, you can simply rest there. But for a lot of folks the only thing between them and the bottomless void of worthlessness is the net woven of their own achievements. And those cords keep fraying and snapping, their achievements keep getting obsolete and wearing out, which means they must be constantly tending to that net, fixing up the old ropes and adding new ones. They have to make themselves matter, all the time. The most arrogant, self-promoting person you know is desperately trying to save his own existence from slipping into the dark night of irrelevance. That person can’t rest. That person can’t celebrate being. And self-validation doesn’t work anyway. We don’t know enough about a) our own character and b) the grand scheme of things to know whether, in the big picture, in the long run, it’s good that we exist. Only God knows enough about us and about everything else to give us that assurance. Only the one who gave us existence can validate our existence. This is where the doctrine of God’s Fatherhood becomes so consoling. Our Lord’s joy is the model for all Christian joy, and it is based totally on the relationship with the Father: “If Jesus radiates such assurance, such happiness, such availability, it is by reason of the inexpressible love by which He knows that He is loved by His Father.” And a Father’s love isn’t based on doing, but on being. It’s not dependent on performance, but on existence. I don’t love my sons or daughters because they are high-performance kids, I love them because they are my kids. I take joy in them not because of what they does, but because of what they are. My delight in them doesn’t depend on their productivity (good thing too, since the only thing they produced early on was vomit and excrement (what comes out of his body)).   God’s love for us is the same way. It is not earned. That’s why we call it gratuitous. Baptism, the sacrament that makes us children of God.

A sobering article entitled Death by Loneliness documented that people are committing suicide and mass murders at an alarming rate because people are missing four essential ingredients to happiness: Family, friends, relationship with God that also gives meaning and purpose to suffering and finally, meaningful work. Meaningful work and a sense of achievement are vital to happiness. But production and achievement alone are insufficient. We also need joy, we need to delight in, rest in the work we have done. I love an arduous hike through the woods and up the mountain. But I am frustrated if I can’t get above tree-line, reach the summit and delight or rest in the 360-degree view that makes me realize, life is bigger than my projects or problems – life is really good. To be happy we need both the arduous work and the rest or the delight in the accomplishment of the work. In todays meditation we focus on joy and delight.  The power of the soul called the Passions are the good God-given emotions or desires designed to propel us toward good and away from evil. There are 11 fundamental passions: Love, Desire, Joy, Hate, Aversion, Sorrow, Hope, Despair, Fear, Courage, Anger. All the passions except one, prompt us to move. The single exception is joy. Joy may motivate action by its absence – when once you’ve tasted joy, you’ll do an awful lot to get it back again – but when joy is present its only demand is that you rest. Joy is the response to something experienced as good, and it invites repose in that good. We are missing out if we do not learn to delight or rest in a job well-done. We were made for joy, not for sorrow. We have the capacity for delight so that we can rest in the good, and perfect rest in the perfect good – perfect delight – is the ultimate purpose of human existence. Heaven, the ultimate joy, is also described by the fourth chapter of Hebrews as simply entering into God’s rest. So if you can’t rest, how are you going to enter heaven?   The Discipline of Rest. What makes joy distinctive is that it prompts us to rest in the good. If we refuse to rest, or if we’re incapable of it, delight will be frustrated. Rest and joy go together. The first condition for delight is rest. St. Paul VI, in his exhortation on Christian Joy, worries that for many, “The burden of their charges, in a fast-moving world, too often prevents them from enjoying daily joys.” When there’s so much to do, so much to get done, people run the risk of failing in the core responsibility of delight. Rest and joy are an obligation, specified in the third commandment. Apparently rest is so foreign, so unlikely for human beings to pursue on their own, that God needs to give us a direct order to take some time every week and prepare for heaven by resting with Him. If left to themselves, people will prefer the merciless yoke of productivity to the joy of the Lord.  The Sabbath frees us from that yoke, it reminds us that we were made for God’s delight and not for work’s anxiety. “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). The Catechism beautifully describes the Sabbath as “a day of protest against the servility of work.”  Isn’t that beautiful? If you can’t say no to work, then you are a slave. Resting on Sunday is a revolution, it’s a weekly overthrow of the usurping tyrant of getting stuff done. Like sorrow, work is good in itself, and part of the human condition. But in the long run, our final purpose isn’t for sorrow, and it isn’t for work. We were made for rest and delight. In the book, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper says, we should treat rest and joy, not work, as the goal of life. Many people treat Sunday just as a “recharging the batteries,” or getting “reenergized.” As though spending time with God, thinking about Him and delighting in all He has done, were just a kind of fueling up so that we could get back to the “real business” of life!

Today, nine months after the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we celebrate her birthday on September 8. Today is the birthday of our spiritual mother. God does not need to use many words to make some of the most important things happen: God said, “Let there be light” and the entire universe sprang into existence. God said, “This is my body.” And bread was transformed into God in the Eucharist at the Last Supper. From the Cross in God said, “Behold, your mother.” What God says become real, and from that moment Mary became our spiritual mother. I know Mary is my Spiritual Mother because I’ve met her In October of 1991 a seminarian, who is now Fr. Bill Ashbaugh, invited me to watch a movie with him. He didn’t tell me what we were going to watch, and little did I know that he had planned for us to watch a video entitled Marian Apparitions of the 20th Century. The movie was narrated by Ricardo Montalban, famous for his endorsement for the Chrysler Cordoba with the rich Corinthian leather. The film documents the apparitions of Mary in the 19th and 20th centuries. At one point as we were watching the video, the room completely dissolved, and it was just me and the Mother of God. To be clear, this was not an apparition. It was more like an intellectual vision. But she was there, and her presence was undeniable. She said to me, “Michael, I have waited too long. You must change now.” For many years right up to that night I had been living in grave, habitual if not mortal sin. Our Lady must have flooded my soul with some unusual grace because when I walked out of that apartment everything changed. I stopped immediately all the grave sins I had made into deep habits and from the next day forward I began to pray the Rosary every day, attend daily Mass and I began to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays. I could not have done this on my own and certainly not overnight. This was a special grace from the Mother of God. If the Mother of God is real, then Jesus is real, and then everything must change. Mary, Our Spiritual Mother continues to come to her children on earth to care for them In 1531 Mary appears in Mexico City, leaving a supernatural, permanent, virtually indestructible sign, the cloak of Juan Diego with her image on it, and 10,000 Aztec Indians Convert to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. You can still see the cloak with her image today with your own eyes for the price of a short flight. 1858 Mary appears at Lourdes France, commands Bernadette to scratch in the ground, and out flows a spring of water that has given forth more than 33,000 gallons of water every day since. At the request of Our Lady people began to bathe in the waters and what occurred was more than 7000 medically verifiable miraculous cures. So many miraculous cures that they built a rail line just to bring the sick to their Mother Mary at Lourdes. In 1917 in Fatima Portugal Mary promised a public miracle for all to see. On October 13, 1917, she delivered on her promise with the miracle of the sun witnessed by more than 70,000 people and reported on by every public newspaper the next day. In the 1980’s Mary appeared at Kibeho Rawanda, warning the people of the growing hatred and that they most forgive their neighbors from the heart. She warned them of a river of blood. They did not listen to their Mother and 1,000,000 Rawandans were killed by their friends and neighbors. Mary has been appearing to six people in Medjugorje Bosnia Herzogovina begging the world to turn away from sin and self-destruction and back to God before it is too late. Will we heed the call of our Mother this time? There is a superabundant power added to the Motherhood of Mary and that is the Holy Spirit. The mission of the Holy Spirit in the world is to conceive the life of Jesus in you, and then form Christ within you, and watch over, protect, educate and nurture the life of Christ in us. God formed Mary as the perfect human expression of the maternal mission.

Our Lady is calling us to a greater quality and quantity of prayer. I have been encouraging you to spend more time in silence and solitude with Jesus in prayer. So what do you think people give as the number one reason for not spending time in prayer? They are too busy. We all think we are too busy… CCC 2742 We have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing. Evagrius (cf. 1 Thess. 5:17)  I do not believe we lack time for prayer because we lack love for God. I think the real culprit is that we have been addicted to the routines of our life and these just need to be broken to create new routines and habits.  Luke 5:12-16 Jesus was not too busy to pray  While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and besought him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And he stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one; but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” But so much the more the report went abroad concerning him; and great multitudes gathered to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed. Jesus had the power to heal any disease – people flooded him with requests – healing people of horrible diseases is important stuff – Jesus was really busy with all these sick people – but He was not too busy to pray. In the face of all this need – he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.  Jesus spent time in deep friendship, relationship with His Father in prayer because he built the habit, the routine of prayer.  Mark 1:35 In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Peter and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you'. Matthew 14, After Jesus fed the 5000 with the multiplication of the loaves, Directly after this he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, Luke 22:39 After the Last Supper, Jesus left to make his way as usual to the Mount of Olives, to pray. Notice, Scripture points out, Jesus went to pray, as usual, as was his custom, this was his habit or routine.  Jesus had a deep friendship with His Father because he had the habit, the routine of prayer. Beginning and ending each day in prayer was his way of life. We will not reach deep friendship with God in prayer until we establish the habit, the routine of prayer – it’s all about our routines.  I know you want a deeper friendship with God, and you know friendship takes time. Yet you probably find yourself almost powerless to make the change. What’s the problem, are you just weak? Do you have no will power? Will-power just means the ability to form routines. The routines we form consciously or unconsciously we can carry out. These routines over time become so powerful they become addictions. There is an old saying, make good habits and become slaves of them. We become slaves to all habits, good or bad. The sub-conscious is powerful. The subconscious is simply habits we have formed into routines of thinking and living. We have built routines in our lives and those routines are so powerful they make us addicts. If we want to make some change, then we must make a break in our ritual, in our routine. We just need to make one change in our daily ritual to change our routine and begin to form new habits to spend more time in friendship with God in prayer. What daily rituals prevent you from spending more time in prayer? What can you do to break one of those rituals and begin anew?

We should pray the Rosary every day because Our Lady came from heaven as aked us to do so. On May 13, 1917 Our Lady requested: “Pray the Rosary everyday, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war”. Sister Lucia, one of the three children to whom Mary appeared at Fatima explained why she thought Our Lady asked everyone to pray the Rosary every day: I think God is Father; and as Father He adapts Himself to the needs and possibilities of his children. Now if God, through Our Lady, had asked us to go to Mass and receive Holy Communion every day, there would be undoubtedly have been a great many people who would have said, quite rightly, that this was not possible. Some, on account of the distance separating them from the nearest Church where Mass was celebrated; others on account of the circumstances of their lives, their state in life, their job, the state of their health, ect. On the other hand to pray the Rosary is something everybody can do, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, great and small. All people of good will can, and must say the Rosary every day. Why? In order to put ourselves in contact with God, to thank Him for His benefits and ask for the graces we need. It is the prayer which places us in familiar contact with God, like the son who goes to his father to thank him for the gifts he has received, to talk to him about special concerns, to receive his guidance, his help, his support and his blessing. Since we all need to pray, God asks of us, as a kind of daily installment, a prayer which is within our reach: the Rosary, which can be recited either in common or in private, either in Church in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or at home, either when traveling or while walking quietly in the fields. A mother of a family can say the Rosary while she rocks her baby’s cradle or does the house work. Our day has twenty four hours in it. It is not asking a great deal to set a side a quarter of an hour for the spiritual life, for our intimate and familiar converse with God. We should pray the Rosary every day because it is the School of Mary where she teaches and forms us to become like Jesus. St. John Paul II wrote: The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us (cf. Gal 4:19). Rosarium 15 Mary has given us a three-fold weapon to change world events, convert family and friends and protect against evil. These three are Pray the Rosary every day Consecrate yourself and your family to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and live the Consecration by living a personal relationship with Mary, moment to moment, day after day Practice Sacrifice and Reparation: what you did not choose, do not like and cannot change, accept with trust and offer it up with love; second – First Saturdays of Reparation – on the first Saturday of 5 consecutive months go to confession, to Mass, pray the Rosary, think about the life of Jesus for 15 with the intention of repairing for all those who refuse to have faith, hope and love and by this means help to save them. By the Rosary Our Lady places us and our family under her Mantle of Protection. When the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both bombing sites experienced miracles associated with the rosary. When Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, 1945, an entire house of Jesuits survived, completely unaffected by the bomb. The Jesuit house was located only eight blocks from where the atomic bomb went off and should have been completely annihilated. A church attached to the Jesuit house and everything else around it for miles was obliterated, but the house with the Jesuits in it survived largely intact. Furthermore, none of the Jesuits suffered any ill effects from radiation or loss of hearing whatsoever.

God’s plan is for the whole Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to live in you and through you. God wants to be the life, love and power pulsing through you. If we would give Him room and let Him live in and through us we would be perfectly happy, have meaning and purpose in life, be filled with joy, totally at peace, undisturbed by any storm, wise to make the best decisions, powerful to overcome any difficulty, loving, energetic, able to move mountains literally, convert countless souls and have the deepest and best friendships. We could have all this IF we would give ourselves to God more generously in prayer. In prayer we open our soul to be filled and transformed by God. This was the secret to the greatness of Mother Teresa, the Saint whose feast we celebrate today. Mother Teresa arguably, did more good than any other person in the 20th century precisely because she opened up and let God fill her by prayer. A young priest asked her one day, “Mother Teresa, what is your secret?” she looked at him with a twinkle in her eye and replied, “That is very simple: I pray.” Mother Teresa once said: Without God we are too poor to help the poor, but when we pray, God places His love in us. Look, the Sisters are poor, but they pray. The fruit of prayer is love. The fruit of love is service. Only when you pray can you really serve the poor.” Once at a gas station, during a trip Mother Teresa was making, she looked for a long time at the nozzle through which the gas was flowing into the tank and then said, “Look, Father, that’s like blood in the body: Without blood there is no life in the body. Without gas in the car—no driving. But also, without prayer the soul is dead.” Maasburg, Leo. Mother Teresa (p. 80). Ignatius Press. When asked what prayer was for her, Mother Teresa answered: “God speaks to me—and I speak to Him. It’s that simple. That is prayer.” Prayer is heart-to-heart contact. “If I pray to Jesus, then it’s from my heart to Jesus’ Heart. When I pray to the Mother of God, then it’s from my heart to Mary’s heart. When I pray to my guardian angel, then it’s also heart to heart.” Mother Teresa’s central principle with regard to prayer was this: “God speaks in the silence of our heart, and we listen. Then, out of the fullness of our heart, we speak and He listens. And that is prayer.” Maasburg, Leo. Mother Teresa (pp. 80-81). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition. People often say, “God never speaks to me.” The question is: Do we ever shut up and listen? De we spend time in silence listening to God? Mother Teresa: “In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence…We must improve our prayer and, flowing from that, our charity toward others. It can be difficult to pray when we don’t know how, but we can help ourselves through the use of silence. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence. This silence takes a lot of sacrifice, but if we really want to pray, we must be ready to take that step now. Without this first step toward silence, we will not be able to reach our goal, which is union with God. We forget that in the silence of the heart God speaks, and from the fullness of the heart we speak. Only when we have heard him in the silence of our hearts, only when we have learned to listen to God in the silence of our hearts, only then can we say: I pray. There is no either/or about prayer and love. We can’t say we have either prayer or love: There is no prayer without love and no love without prayer. The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace.” According to Mother Teresa, peace, service, love, faith and prayer all find their origin in silence.

In every approved apparition from the Miraculous Medal to the reported apparitions of Medjugorje, Jesus and Mary have called us to help them save souls and to change world events by our prayer and suffering. Yesterday, the mission to pray; today, suffering.  The Mission of Jesus was to save souls by suffering. We are invited to share in the same mission, to take up our cross daily and follow him.  Recently a wise friend of mine reminded me that my mission was to teach and to suffer. That caught me off-guard, but it is true. I should not forget or reject this aspect of my mission. An essential part of our mission as a Christian is to save other souls and alter world events by our suffering. The greatest good we can do is through our suffering united to Christ and that is what gives meaning and purpose to suffering! I believe Jesus wants us to help him save souls by our suffering. But I don’t like it. And I am tempted to doubt this truth and fall into the temptation that my suffering is random and senseless. There is no reason for my suffering – it just is. Since there is no reason for my suffering then there is no meaning or purpose to my suffering. If the origin of my suffering is random and senseless then there is no meaning or purpose to it. Oh sure, it can make me stronger if I respond in the right way, but the suffering can be so great and last so long that if there is no meaning or purpose to it, eventually it overcomes a person. You can overcome anything if there is a strong enough reason to endure; but if there is no reason, no meaning or purpose, then we cannot endure. This is one of the most important questions that must be answered by every human – what is the meaning and purpose of my suffering? Jesus Christ is the only one who gives meaning and purpose to suffering and the Catholic Church hands down this meaning. No other philosophy or religion answers the question adequately – and that is why so many people are lost, atheist, depressed, commit suicide or mass murders…they do not have a way to make sense out of suffering. We do. Christ has given us the answer. Jesus brought into His suffering all the suffering that would every be in the world, from the beginning to the end of time. He transformed it and gave it meaning and purpose – to save souls. This gives our suffering a meaning - to save souls. Jesus gave a creative character, a creative meaning to our suffering. If we accept and unite our suffering to His, then He uses it to recreate souls, that is, to save souls from sin and hell and to save the world from self-destruction. Jesus is counting on us not to waste our suffering. Don’t waste it – leverage it. What you did not choose, do not like and cannot change, accept with trust and offer with love to save souls. The sufferings of Christ created the good of the world's redemption. This good in itself is inexhaustible and infinite. No man can add anything to it. But at the same time, in the mystery of the Church as his Body, Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering. In so far as man becomes a sharer in Christ's sufferings—in any part of the world and at any time in history—to that extent he in his own way completes the suffering through which Christ accomplished the Redemption of the world. A young blind woman name Tina was recently hit by a truck walking through an intersection. Miraculously she survived. She has endured multiple reconstructive surgeries. Yesterday she awoke and said three words: Suffering for souls. We offer this Rosary for the recovery of Tina! I want to announce that we are implementing the option to make a donation at the bottom of this email. Our mission is to deliver meaning, hope, and happiness through deep friendship with Jesus and others. Help us develop tools to bring the audio Rosary to a million people by the end of 2025!

Yesterday, September 2, 2019, Our Lady is reported to have given this message at Medjugorje: Dear children, pray! Pray the Rosary every day—that wreath of flowers which, as a mother, directly connects me with your pains, sufferings, desires, and hopes. Apostles of my love, I am with you through the grace and the love of my Son, and I am asking for prayers of you. The world is in such need of your prayers for souls to be converted. With complete trust, open your hearts to my Son, and in them He will inscribe the summary of His words—which is love. Live in an unbreakable connection with the Most Sacred Heart of my Son. My children, as a mother, I am telling you that it is high time for you to kneel before my Son to acknowledge Him as your God, the center of your life. Offer gifts to Him—that which He most loves—which is love towards neighbor, mercy, and pure hearts. Apostles of my love, many of my children still do not acknowledge my Son as their God; they have not yet come to know His love. But you, with your prayer pronounced from a pure and open heart, by the gifts which you offer to my Son, will make even the hardest hearts open. Apostles of my love, the strength of prayer pronounced from the heart—a powerful prayer full of love—changes the world. Therefore, my children: pray, pray, pray. I am with you. Thank you.” This message at Medjugorje is similar to the August 19 message of Our Lady at Fatima: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” The message of Our Lady at San Nicolas Argentina in the 1980s is also similar: "God's warning is over the world. Those who stay in the Lord have nothing to fear, but those who deny what comes from him do. Two-thirds of the world is lost and the other part must pray and make reparation for the Lord to take pity. The devil wants to have full domination over the earth. He wants to destroy. The earth is in great danger." Mary tells us, “The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary." We need to pray the Rosary every day and to be Apostles of the Rosary. This is a good start, but Our Lady is urging us to go further into union with Jesus and to help him save souls by our deeper prayer. As a young priest, Angelo Comastri, who today is a cardinal archpriest of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, relates his first encounter and conversation with St. Mother Teresa:  She gave me a Miraculous Medal, put it in my hand, and asked me, “For how much time do you pray each day?” I was astonished and a little embarrassed. Then, gathering my thoughts, I replied, “Mother, I celebrate Holy Mass each day, I pray the Breviary each day…I pray the rosary each day also and very gladly…” Mother Teresa, with her rough hands, clasped the rosary that she always had with her. Then she fixed on me her eyes, which were filled with light and love, and said: “That is not enough, my son! That is not enough, because love cannot be reduced to the indispensable minimum; love demands the maximum!” I did not understand Mother Teresa’s words right away, and, as though to justify myself, I replied, “Mother, I expected from you instead this question: What acts of charity do you do?” Suddenly Mother Teresa’s face became very serious again, and she said in a stern tone of voice: “Do you think that I could practice charity if I did not ask Jesus every day to fill my heart with his love? Do you think that I could go through the streets looking for the poor if Jesus did not communicate the fire of his charity to my heart?”…Enunciating each word, she added: “Read the Gospel attentively, and you will see that Jesus sacrificed even charity for prayer. And do you know why? To teach us that, without God, we are too poor to help the poor!”  Rest with God in prayer. God wants to give you rest so that he can fill, transform, and heal you.

I want you to reach a deeper friendship and intimacy with God in this life and so for the last few days I have been explaining the nine stages of prayer and that when you reach the 5th stage of prayer, infused prayer or contemplation you will begin to experience heaven on earth. To grow in prayer we need to foster a greater desire for God since as John of the Cross writes the desire for God is the preparation for union with Him. However, we cannot grow in union with God unless we grow in love for other people, including our enemies. I don’t like this. I am all for the love of God, but I don’t want to love all people. Some people are my enemies, and the enemies of the things that are genuinely good, things I love and want to protect. In the 1st Letter of John chapter 4, John warns us we must be on guard against the enemies of Christ and against the world: It is not every spirit, my dear people, that you can trust; test them, to see if they come from God, there are many false prophets, now, in the world. You can tell the spirits that come from God by this: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but any spirit which will not say this of Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you were warned about. Well, now he is here, in the world…This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood. False, wrong and evil ideas are dangerous because they lead to evil choices and actions that are destructive to the individual, marriage, family and society such as Marxism that has infected every sector of our society, socialism, contraception, abortion, sodomy and gender fluidity; just to name a few. All bad ideas and destructive actions. We are right to have an aversion toward these destructive ideas and hate them and work to prevent them from having any place in our society. We must think about, assess and judge ideas and actions but we must not hate or condemn persons. This is a crucial distinction because God is love and we will be judged by our love of persons, including enemies. But the devil wants everyone to hate everyone else so that we destroy each other and the world. That simple. 1 John 4:7 My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love…My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us….We ourselves have known and put our faith in God's love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear; because even in this world we have become as he is…4:19 We are to love, then, because he loved us first. Anyone who says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. John of the Cross writes: At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon you own ways of acting. Sayings 60 Love is a choice to think, speak and do what is good for another person. The Golden Rule from the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus is this: Always treat others as you would like them to treat you. We judge ideas and actions. This is good or this is evil. We must never accept and tolerate evil ideas and actions out of some false form of tolerance. But we must love persons. We can never condemn persons, because we can never know the other two parts of morality: their intentions or their circumstances. Therefore, we can only judge ideas and actions but not persons.

I want you to continue to respond to call of Mary to pray the Rosary every day. Through the Rosary the Holy Spirit and Mary will form Jesus within you. The Rosary is the School of Mary. The Rosary is also the greatest weapon to overcome evil and bring peace to our families and the world. Mary is the one who crushes the head of Satan and she will do so in our lives by the Rosary. At the same time I want to encourage you to deepen your friendship with God by spending more time with him in prayer; talking to him from the heart, listening to him by reading the Word of God and just being quiet and still with him. What prevents us from spending more time with Jesus in friendship are the 1000s desires and worries that vie for time and attention. What overcomes these 1000s is a greater desire for God. John of the Cross, in his Living Flame of Love 3:26, says the desire for God is the preparation for union with Him. The questions is: how do we increase our desire for God?  The first way is very simple: ask for it. God please give me a greater desire for you. I want to desire you above all things.  The desire you feed will grow. The desire you starve will die. If you feed your desire for God, then it will grow and this desire will lead you to a deep and profound union with Him. If you feed your desire for things of this world, this desire will lead you to seek happiness in things that can never satisfy and you will grow increasingly hungry and empty and nothing will satisfy you as you journey further and further away from God.  Stop feeding bad desires; feed good desires less; feed your desire for God more.  We all have bad desires, disordered desires - we desire good things in a way that begin to control us and become addictions. The roots of these are pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. Think honestly about the desires that drive your life. Identity them. The desire to win; the desire to be wanted by your spouse or kids; the desire for safety, stability or security; the desire for entertainment, tasty food, the desire to feel good, to look good, to be the best. The desire to achieve great things. Any of these good desires can become disordered and prevent us from union with God and perfect happiness. Stop feeding the bad desires and they will begin to starve and die off. How? All these disordered desires are addictions we don’t seem able to break – well recognize your inability to change them, admit you are powerless over them, immediately turn to Jesus, then take these disordered desires to confession and he will begin to set us free.  Stop feeding bad desires but we also need to feed Good desires less. The desire for sleep, food, drink, exercise, family, friends, achievement, knowledge, beauty etc. are good desires. But if one good desire begins to exclude other good things we need and especially if it is stronger than our desire for God then it is an obstacle. So feed these less and they will shrink in power. How do I identify which desires are disordered or out of balance? Ask yourself – am I perfectly happy? What is it in my life that prevents my happiness? What is the cause? The cause will point to a disordered desire.   Feed your desire for God and it will grow.  Receive Jesus as often as you can in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is God, the consuming fire of love. The more you receive Him the more you will be inflamed with a desire for God. Fire sets other things on fire. God, in the Eucharist is a consuming fire of love. My experience is that when I go to daily Mass, I desire Jesus in the Eucharist more. My desire grows. Spend more time with Jesus in prayer. Proximity causes intimacy; while absence makes the heart go wander. The more we spend time with God the more we want him and the less we desire sin. Go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation at least once a month. Sin separates us from God and diminishes our desire for him. Confession unites us every more closely to God.

Over the last few days I have been encouraging you to spend more time in friendship with Jesus by moving from stage one, vocal prayer, talking to God, to listening in Meditation so that you can reach stage 5, infused prayer or contemplation, which is the beginning of the experience of heaven on earth. The Rosary is a combination of vocal prayer and meditation, but to move to meditation it is helpful to understand what it is… Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, p. 318 Meditation is a reasoned application of the mind to some supernatural truth, in order to penetrate its meaning, love it, and carry it into practice with the assistance of grace. Meditation is to turn your attention to God To think about what He has said or done In order to understand it To love God for the things He has said and done To form firm convictions That we will put into practice with the assistance of grace What do we meditate upon? As Christians we meditate on the Word of God, but the Word of God is more than the Bible. Jesus is the Word of God. The full Word of God is all that Jesus revealed through his life and his teachings. The full revelation of Jesus is handed down to us through Scripture, Tradition and the teachings of the Catholic Church, called the Magisterium. The complete teaching of Jesus, the full Word of God is called the Deposit of Faith. As Christians meditate upon all that is contained in the Deposit of Faith, all that is found in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. We can use as good meditation material anything from the Old or New Testaments, or the writings of the saints like Augustine, Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux or St. Faustina. And it doesn’t stop there. We can also reflect upon the teachings of the Church, the Magisterium. In fact, the best synthesis or summary of the Deposit of Faith, all that Jesus revealed is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism is wonderful to meditate upon. Or consider other Magisterial teachings such as St. John Paull II’s letter on the Christian Meaning of Human suffering. All these things are an expression of the Deposit of Faith or the Word of God. All of these are great things to meditate upon during meditation or the Rosary. There is a simple method to meditation. It is like having coffee with a friend. Set a specific time and place conducive to a leisurely intimate conversation. Then Talk and share, listen and understand and finally just enjoy the time together. We have broken it down into 3 R’s which we shared with you yesterday: Read something from the Bible or from the Tradition, some good writing from a Saint or a spiritual author. As soon as something profound strikes you – stop reading. Reflect or Think about what struck you Try to understand what you read Apply it to your life Draw practical conclusions for yourself Talk over all of this with Jesus in your mind and heart Resolution Choose something practical and concrete to remember or to do today based on your meditation Write down your resolution and keep it with you The two most powerful aspects of Meditation are reflecting upon the Word of God and the forming of a resolution. These two together, founded on the grace of God, are the transforming powers of meditation. On the first, the power of reflection Jordan Aumann writes: Numerous persons who live habitually in sin continue in that condition simply because they never reflect seriously upon the state of their souls. Some of them do not have malicious hearts, nor do they hate the things of God or their own salvation; they have simply given themselves entirely to purely natural activities and have neglected the things that are of importance to their soul. One of the greatest proofs that their sad condition is due not so much to malice as to the lack of reflection is the fact that when they…attend a retreat or mission, they may experience a complete conversion of life.

Facing temptations in prayer Prayer is friendship with God. Friendship takes time talking, listening and just being together. But it certainly takes one on one time and focused attention. Vocal prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary, and personal prayers of petition in which we turn to Our Father for all we need are good. But if we stop there, it is not much of a friendship. We would not call it friendship if the only time we communicate was to ask for something. If the only time you call me is when you want something from me – I will stop answering and I will not consider you a friend. Friendship with God is more than talking and asking. It takes time in relationship – listening and just being together. Yet too often we do stop at the stage of talking and asking and we don’t go on to deeper friendship. Do you long for a greater intimacy with God? The CCC points out different temptations that lead us to fail to develop a deep friendship with Jesus in prayer. CCC 2732 The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared disbelief than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is? Do we really think God is only our last resort rather than our greatest desire? The Catechism is hitting hard. It is confronting us with the most damning temptation to prayer: the temptation that I may pray, I may turn to God when I need things, but I do not turn to him because I want him. In fact it is my wanting everything but Him that prevents me from prayer. What is really at the root of my struggle to spend more time in solitude talking to God, listening to Him and just being with him in silence and stillness? Please do not misunderstand. Vocal prayer is good, but it is just the first of nine stages of friendship with God. I want you to go on to the second stage, meditation. Meditation is to go on from talking to listening to God by reading and reflecting on his life and words in Scripture and then puts them into practice by a daily resolution. Jesus said as much in the Sermon on the Mount: 'It is not those who say to me, "Lord, Lord", who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?" Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!' 'Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Matthew 7:21-24 The Mother of God has asked us to pray the Rosary every day. That is why I do it. The Rosary is a combination of vocal prayer and meditation. We listen to something from the Word of God, the Deposit of faith comprised of Scripture and Tradition, and then we reflect upon it while we say the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and the Fatima prayer. So it’s a good combination of stage 1 and 2 of intimacy with God. Now I am encouraging you to increase your relationship with Jesus, if you are not already, by spending additional time in friendship with Him in a form of Catholic Meditation that will prepare you for the third stage – Affective Prayer – because I want you to reach infused prayer, contemplation, the beginning of heaven on earth. Meditation can be broken down to 3 simple steps – 3 R’s Read something from the Bible or from the Tradition, some good writing from a Saint or a spiritual author. As soon as something profound strikes you – stop reading. Reflect or Think about what struck you Try to understand what you read Apply it to your life Draw practical conclusions for yourself Talk over all of this with Jesus in your mind and heart.

Prayer is friendship with God: it is talking, listening and just being with God. This corresponds to the three major expressions of prayer: Vocal prayer, mediation, and contemplation. The goal of this friendship with God we call prayer is Heaven. Heaven is a transforming union with God. The journey to heaven does not begin at death. The journey or pilgrimage to heaven is supposed to begin now. In fact, you are traveling either closer to heaven or closer to hell at each moment. Time is dynamic. There is no standing still and there are only two ultimate destinations: heaven and union with God or hell and eternal isolation and loneliness. We are indebted to the great Doctor on Prayer, Teresa of Avila, for explaining the different stages in the journey of the soul to Heaven or union with God. The landscape of prayer has been divided into (9) stages: Vocal prayer, Meditation, Affective prayer, Prayers of Simplicity, Infused Contemplation, Prayers of Quiet, Prayers of Union, Prayers of Conforming Union, and the Prayers of Transforming Union. It is a doctrine of the Catholic Church that every person was created by God to reach at least the 5th stage of prayer, infused contemplation, because every person was created for holiness and holiness is the fruit of contemplation. Every one of you praying now has the God given capacity to reach at least the 5th stage in this life – that is if you desire it and persevere in prayer. St. Faustina describes her experience of contemplation this way: "O Holy Trinity, Eternal God, I thank you for allowing me to know the greatness and the various degrees of glory to which souls attain. Oh, what a great difference of depth in the knowledge of God there is between one degree and another! Oh, if people could only know this! O my God, if I were able to attain one more degree, I would gladly suffer all the torments of the martyrs put together." With Stages 3-4  we begin to desire to spend time with Jesus and Mary without talking, without trying to figure things (discursive meditation), but simply to remain alone with them in quiet. John of the Cross describes this as: “An inclination to remain alone and in quietude…If those in whom this occurs, know how to remain quiet (not talking or trying to figure things out) they will soon in that unconcern and idleness delicately experience the interior nourishment.” This prepares us for stage 5 (contemplation): “Contemplation is nothing but a hidden, peaceful and loving inflow of God. If it is given room, it will inflame the spirit with love.” John of the Cross The transition from stage 4 to 5 involves: The Dark Night of the Senses Which accomplishes 2 things in us. First, it purges the soul of all disordered attachments, misdirected desires, and idols and addictions that block God from entering more fully (Pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust). Then, it prepares the soul to share more fully in His divine life. We could not handle His divine life if He didn’t prepare us. It would be like pouring new wine into old wine skins. Contemplation is an experience of God, drinking of the Living Water which quenches the thirst of the soul which satisfies as nothing else in the world. How do we prepare to Drink of the Living Water? Jesus said to St. Angela of Foligno, “Make yourself a capacity and I will make myself a torrent.” 1. Desire, want transforming union with God 2. Receive the Eucharist and Reconciliation Frequently 3. Persevere in a Daily Examination of Conscience with Daily Meditation and a Resolution 4. Pray the Daily Rosary 5. Live a well ordered and balanced life (a Rule of Life) 6. Have a Spiritual Director or at least good Spiritual Friendship to give you encouragement and accountability. 

Why would anyone want to pray? I want to pray because I want to be happy. Happiness is to possess the good things that complete or fulfill our human nature. In general, God designed the Human Person to need certain good things to be satisfied. We need: physical goods, psychological goods, family and friendship, knowledge, meaningful work, beauty, and identity.  If you had all these would you be perfectly satisfied? No! And that is the right answer because even though the things of the world are good…the Problem lies in this: Nothing is perfect, lasting, or enough. I desire more - union with God. We were made for union with God.  Today is the Feast of St Augustine and he summed up this desire for union with God when he wrote “you have made us for yourself, O Lord and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The good things in life are the cups – Jesus is the Living Water. The good things in life we need to be happy – physical, emotional, family, friends, meaningful work, knowledge, beauty, ect… are like cups. But Jesus is the Living Water that needs to fill the cups. Without the Living Water, without a personal relationship with Jesus, then we might have all the right cups, but they are empty. Then we become unsatisfied with our spouse, our house, our job, our health and wealth and everything else. The danger is that we think the problem is with the cup. The cup is empty so we think the problem is with the cup and we think we can solve the problem by getting rid of this cup and getting a different cup, a different spouse or house or vacation or better health or whatever. But the problem was not with the cup The problem is not with the cup, the problem is that the cup is empty of the Living Water, empty of the personal relationship with Jesus that comes through prayer. A different or new cup wont solve the problem. The solution is to fill our existing cups, fill our lives with the Living Water that is Jesus that comes through prayer. A Personal relationship with Jesus is the Living Water that can fill up every area of life so that we can be satisfied. In John 7 Jesus stood and cried out: 'If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come to me and drink…For My heart is a Fountain of living water.” The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church are the Fountains from which the Living Water flows. The Eucharist is the Fountain par excellence because the Eucharist is literally the Heart of Jesus. If you want to drink the Living Water, then you must to come to the Heart of Jesus. The sacraments, especially the Eucharist, is the Fountain. But it is possible to come to the well and not drink. Not only do we need to come to the fountain, but we need to open up and Drink the Living Water. We drink in the Living Water of Jesus by Prayer.  Pope Benedict writes: “Prayer is the self-opening of the human spirit to God.” (Jesus of Nazareth vol 2, p. 233) Many people come to the Fountain of Living Water but they do not drink in the living water because they do not have a personal friendship with Jesus in prayer and they spend little or no time in prayer. Prayer is friendship with God. What does friendship take? Time… time talking, listening, and just being together. The Great Teresa of Avila writes “Prayer…is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; its means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” Prayer is friendship with God: it is talking, listening and just being together. This corresponds to the three major expressions of prayer: Vocal prayer,  meditation, and contemplation.  Prayer is friendship with God, talking to him from the heart, listening and just spending time with Him. We want to drink the Living Water, but have you ever experienced that you cant talk and drink at the same time. We can't drink the living water unless we spend time drinking and listening.

We are all addicts. Addicts to the sins we have turned into habits that are buried so deep in our sub-conscience we do them without even thinking. There are seven roots of our addiction and they are known as the deadly sins: Pride, envy, anger, acedia, greed, gluttony and lust. Pride in the form of self-reliance, the disordered desire for perfection, or being a control freak, refusing to listen to anyone other than oneself; but Pride is also found in timidity, anxiety and fear. Envy is a sadness at someone’s good and pleasure at their misfortune. It leads us to gossip, backbiting, tearing others down in the attempt to raise ourselves up. Its why we love hearing and spreading dirty laundry. Anger and impatience – that’s probably self-explanatory. Acedia or Sloth which is not laziness but rather an aversion to the invitation from God to become a saint. So rather than heed the invitation from God we escape his call through our constant busyness and entertainment which keeps us from doing those things that will really bring us into union with God. After all, there’s nothing more difficult than becoming holy. Greed is a disordered love of getting and possessing. Although this might involve mere money, it can also take the form of an excessive desire for position, knowledge, and other goods. It is the desire for satisfaction and fulfillment in the possession of things which tries to find security in worldly realities, rather than in God. When we fail to trust that God will provide our daily bread then we seek to grab all that we can and store it up for a rainy day. Gluttony refers to eating, drinking and drug use for the sake of pleasure or to escape the reality we find too hard, too painful, or too boring. Finally, Lust, the way we use others sexually to get what we want. Men use women to get what they want and women use men to get what they want. We each want something different but we use one another just the same. The seven deadly sins do not make us happy and our sins certainly don’t make the lives of those around us better. In fact, they destroy the good things in life we need to be happy. If we want to be set free we need to do three things: First, make a searching, honest and fearless examination of conscience. Then, admit to God, to ourselves and to a priest the exact nature of our wrongs in the sacrament of Reconciliation. Finally, do our penance, that is, practice the virtues that conquer the vices to which you have been enslaved: practice humility, good-will, meekness, magnanimity, generosity, temperance, charity, courage, honesty, patience, etc. One of the things that can prevent me from receiving the freedom and healing I need in the Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly is that get lazy about doing a daily examination of conscience. Then when I think about confession I seem to get this amnesia and can’t remember any of my sins so I put it off until I have some sins. I need to change this. At the beginning of each day, or the beginning of my time in meditation, or at the end of the day, I need to take a few minutes for an examination of conscience which consists of three things:  Gratitude, acknowledgment of our wrong, and a practical game plan to go forward.  Start with Gratitude – call to mind all the things for which you are you thankful to God? Then think back over the last 24 hours and admit where you have sinned in your thoughts, words or actions. Ask, why did I do these things? What was at the root? Was it Pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony or lust? Then make a practical game plan to live differently today. God forgives our sin and gives us His grace to be changed and transformed. But, its not magic - we must do our part. Don't try to change everything in your life. Pick one thing to change, one virtue to practice, and that will enable you to change everything in your life eventually. 

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ 2. Mary brought Jesus to Elizabeth and John the Baptist in her womb. Mary leads all people to Jesus! The more you develop a relationship with Mary, your spiritual mother, the more she will help you live your relationship with Jesus. Poland may be the last completely Christian nation in the world. I know it is not 100% but it is close. And why has their faith survived, even after 70 years of pressure from Government enforced atheism under the Soviet Union. Because of their deep relationship with Mary, the Mother of Jesus and Our Mother. Poland’s love for Mary is seen in their love for the Icon of the Black Madonna kept at the Monastery of Czestochowa. I saved an image of this icon on your email. Tradition holds that it was painted by St. Luke, the writer of the Gospel and later taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople and then Poland. During Holy Week of 1430, robbers attacked the monastery looking for treasure, finding none they took whatever religious good, chalices, etc. and even the Holy Icon, but miraculously as they carried it away it become so heavy, they could go no further. They dropped it in the mud and slashed the Virgin's face with a sword, and the Icon began to bleed. With the 3rd stroke of the sword the attacker died. Frightened they left it desecrated in a puddle of blood and mud. The monks pulled the icon from the mud, a miraculous fountain appeared, which they used to clean the painting. The icon was repainted in Krakow, but both the arrow mark and the gashes from the sword were left and remain clearly visible today. 3. In the year 1655, the Lutheran King of Sweden, Charles X, attacked Poland. This invading force, known as the Deluge was stopped at only one place the fortress monastery of Czestochowa which contained the miraculous icon of the Black Madonna. As he stood beneath the ramparts of the monastery the Swedish General Muller contemptuously exclaimed "We will have that henhouse down in three days." But that is not how things turned out. Both Polish and Swedish witnesses testified that that during the siege, the Holy Virgin of Czestochowa appeared above the monastery, leading the defenders and directing their fire. A testimony of this miraculous apparition of the Blessed Virgin was given by the Swedish General Muller. After the siege of Czestochowa, General Muller spent some time in Krakow. In one of the churches, he gazed on a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Asked the reason for his amazement, he said in reply that what convinced him to retreat from the siege of Czestochowa was a visit from a noble woman. Her words and menacing look severely warned him. He did not know who the woman was until he saw this image of Mary in the Church. Then he knew it was the Blessed Virgin Mary herself who turned him away from destroying the Monastery that housed her Icon. “Impossible,” he was saying about the Image. “This is like the Virgin that appeared to me and directed a canon against me by her hand. But on earth something like this does not seem possible. O Celestial and Divine thing! That which I feared beyond measure has shown again in her majestic face.”

Thank you for joining us for our meditation on the Kingdom of Heaven

Today is the feast of the Apostle Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael. I walk by his house in Cana in the Holy Land every time I lead a pilgrimage there. Bartholomew was one of the few who said yes to a life of deep friendship with Jesus Christ. He lived this intimate friendship with Jesus and with the other Apostles for three years and then he went forth after the Resurrection to constantly invite others into friendship with Jesus. We make things too complicated and difficult. This life is most importantly about a deep friendship with Jesus in prayer; it is about living authentic friendships with others; and constantly multiplying by inviting others into this way of life. Yeah, I know, you got a lot of things going on in your life. But the only things you will take with you from this life to the next are these three: your friendship with Jesus – so you better get that now, because if you exit this life without it you are screwed; Virtuous friendships with others also goes with us into heaven, that is why we have the communion of saints – a bunch of really close friends who are perfectly happy with God; Finally, that we helped others to friendship with Jesus like Bartholomew did. The friendship and love Bartholomew had for Christ and souls took him to Armenia, on the far eastern side of Turkey, where he introduced the brother of the King of Armenia to Jesus and he converted. For this the King had Bartholomew skinned alive and crucified head downward. The missionary efforts of St. Bartholomew along with the Apostle Jude Thaddeus were so successful that in 301, thanks to the apostolate of St. Gregory the Illuminator, Armenia became the first nation that embraced Christianity and proclaimed it a state religion, even before the Edict of Milan of 313, by which the Roman Empire tolerated Christianity, and the Edict of Theodosius by which in 380 the Empire recognized Christianity as a state religion. Surrounded by Islam on all sides Armenia has remained a Christian nation until this day. Way to go Bart! The Gospel of Todays Mass for the Feast of Bartholomew is from John 1:45-51 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ ‘From Nazareth?’ said Nathanael ‘Can anything good come from that place?’ ‘Come and see’ replied Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, ‘There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.’ ‘How do you know me?’ said Nathanael. ‘Before Philip came to call you,’ said Jesus ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ Nathanael answered, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus replied, ‘You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ And then he added ‘I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’ People come to God through other people. There is no other way. Philp helped Bartholomew into friendship with Jesus by his friendship with Bartholomew. That is precisely how God set it up; that by the unique friendships established through marriage, family, work and social life, we develop authentic friendships with others. True friends want what is best for the other and the greatest good is friendship with God. so that is what we hope to help our spouse, kids and friends to – deep friendship with Jesus. If we truly live the virtue of friendship in which we demonstrate that we know, love and care for the other person unconditionally, then we will have won the right to propose friendship with Jesus to them. But only based on this precondition. Am I really demonstrating that I really know, understand, love and care unconditionally for those around me? If yes, then I am on good footing to help them to Jesus. IF not, then I have some work to do. Bartholomew lived Deep friendship with God.