Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts

"Anyone unwilling to work should not eat"

We read the passage from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians (3:10) that "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat" a few days ago during morning or evening prayer, so when I saw that today we were celebrating the feast of the basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul it immediately jumped to mind.  I thought "I should write a post on this", and then, as often seems the case, ideas started filling my mind about how such a post might come together.  See, yesterday, right after the usual 4 hours of classes (Pentateuch and Church History), about half of the guys in my class made our way across Rome and proceeded to watch a video for a couple hours about all sorts of different details regarding moving/immigrating/entering Italy.  Most of it was totally inapplicable - we're not planning on becoming Italian citizens, or having kids, or finding family over here, etc. - but it wasn't all bad.  First of all, it was rather hilarious to watch the two people - totally straight faced, and looking absolutely bored - banter back and forth about intricacies of Italian immigration law.  [Laura] "John, I'm so glad you mentioned that, it's sooo interesting, could you remind us of the seventeen types of visas that one can apply for and the penalties that are incurred if you don't apply at your local post-office?"...  Also, I got a bit of seminar reading done while sitting there (we're reading about Scripture, and how God inspired the human authors to record his revelation), so that was a plus! 

How, does this apply to Paul?  Well, while sitting there - half way through eating my lunch and part of the way through the videos - one of the guys (thanks John!) asked if the occasion would make it onto my blog.  I couldn't immediately think of a way to fit it in here - yeah, they talked about marriage, maybe do something with that... - but this morning "the dawn from on high broke upon me" and I finally found a way to blog about it!  And that is the topic of work.  This video, again, and again, and again, spoke about the importance of work for the "unitary parliamentary republic" of current-day Italy.  Work visas, guarantees for work, how the country was founded on and for work...  It was one of the most-repeated topics, and one that I didn't think was very applicable to me, but - as it turned out - it definitely is.  Taking Paul's words literally, if you don't work, you don't eat, it's that simple.  Work is necessary because society wouldn't function without it, people would starve, and that's non va bene (not good).  But, since those words are inspired by God, we can go much further than just the literal meaning! 

Just last week my class had a formation conference on the topic of academic formation, and Msgr. Hanke began his talk with Our Lord's words "the harvest is ready but the laborers are few".  We, as he pointed out, might not be enamored by our studies.  Some classes aren't super-interesting, some even seem to be a waste of time - I could be getting so much more done doing something else - and some are just plain hard.  But, just as we get excited about the next travel weekend, or going out to dinner, or playing a sport, or leading tours of St. Peter's, or going to Mass at magnificent cathedrals, or spending time in Adoration, or getting ordained and working in a parish, we also need to enthusiastically throw ourselves at our studies.  Why? Because there is a much deeper meaning behind Our Lord's words, and St. Paul's words than just the literal of the necessity for work.  St. Paul tells us "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat".  The focus isn't so much "if you don't work, you don't get to eat" but rather "here's the food, now work!"  Our Lord has already given us the food - Himself in the Eucharist, He has already given us the strength and sustenance to go out there and "fight the good fight".  See, not only is our food supernatural, but so is our work, our task, our calling! 

Look at any of the saints!  St. John Vianney spent like 15+ hours in the confessional each day.  St. Thomas Aquinas wrote so many books in his (short) life that he was at times he was dictating two different books, to two different scribes, at the same time.  St. Joseph, St. Faustina, St. Catherine of Sienna - these are saints who put blood, sweat, and tears into their work for the Lord, and they made it to heaven, so they're probably pretty good examples to follow.  But, sticking with St. Paul, we have another fantastic example of somebody who worked hard for God.  He traveled a lot of miles (10,000ish, if you count his last journey to Rome), wrote a lot of letters, ...  actually, he says exactly what he endured for the sake of Christ:
"but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything" - 2 Corinthians 6:4-10
We, of course, are called to follow in the footsteps of these saints!  We, too, are called to labor for God in this world.  Originally, I was going to end this post here, but there's one more important thing to say.  And that is this: that we do all of this, we tackle every challenge, every difficulty, every cross, with love.  The Eucharist, Jesus giving Himself to us, isn't like some sort of protein bar - giving us a boost of energy to keep working - it's so much more than that!  It isn't just our sustenance, it's the bond between us and God, Divine life within us.  I just read a section in Pope Emeritus Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth (for Christology) and while he's talking about the beatitude "blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God", he speaks to this idea of "seeing God" and how it belongs properly to Jesus, as the Son, to "see God".  "Purification of heart occurs as a consequence of following Christ, of becoming one with him." [page 95]  This union, this "becoming one", happens most profoundly, and most amazingly in the Eucharist!  And what is the very next thing that Benedict says? - "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (quoting St. Paul, from Galatians 2:20).  This is huge!  The Eucharist doesn't just give us a spiritual boost to keep doing whatever we need to get done, it makes us intimately united with Christ, it super-naturalizes our work to become His.  We aren't always writing amazing theological works, or bringing the faith to pagans, or writing letters to the Pope (St. Thomas, St. Paul, St. Catherine did those things all the time), but when we receive the Eucharist we can allow even our menial, boring, day-to-day, tasks become the work of Christ.  When Christ is in us, when we allow Him to work through us and in us, not only are we availed that supernatural energy that comes from following Him, but we are also made co-workers in His vineyard.  This task is tough!  Christ might call us to difficult works for Him, or He might call us to do our typical works, but transformed and inspired by Him.  Either way, we might not be applauded by our world these days.  But regardless, Christ is with us, filling us with His love and strength, and guiding us on the path of following Him. 

And you thought taking out the trash, or going to that class, or watching a "civic education" video didn't matter!  Folks, if you're willing to eat - to consume Christ's Body - be ready to work, to do everything with the challenge of doing it as Christ would, and the comfort of having Him with you!

Notice who is behind St. Paul!  (and the fact that he's carrying a sword...)
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Not a Snow Day, But That's OK.

It's one of those days where I really don't feel like doing anything.  Last night most of us guys at Brute were jubilant at the thought that classes would be canceled today.  Historically, Marian only cancels classes rarely (I've only seen it happen once), but surely, if we get between 7 and 12 inches of snow (the forecast last night) they would cancel classes, right?  Well, we didn't get an email last night, and we didn't get one this morning, and we still haven't gotten one, so here I am sitting in the library, gearing up to go to my classes, and feeling kind of glum about the whole thing.  Thankfully I don't have any big assignments this week (some guys have their first wave of tests), but I still should be working on getting ahead, especially in classes where I'll have tests over the next week or two...  

On days like today, usually something in the Office or in the readings at Mass hits me square in the forehead and tells me to get to work.  Sure enough, after taking a rare nap after Mass (because I was really tired for whatever reason), I decided to say mid-morning prayer.  Typically, I would have been working on reading or doing homework for class, but I didn't have much that I had to get done (and had next to no motivation), so I decided to do mid-day prayer before I went to class instead of after I got back.  Well, the reading for today was from Colossians:

Whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give thanks to God the Father through him. - Colossians 3:17
The prayer (which I forgot to take from the Memorial of St. Agatha) also had a similar emphasis:

God of mercy, this midday moment of rest is your welcome gift.  Bless the work we have begun, make good its defects and let us finish it in a way that pleases you.  Grant this through Christ our Lord. - Amen
Sometimes it is hard to discern what God is telling me to do.  Today it was abundantly clear: get to work!  You literally just had a midday moment of rest, now get working on that chapter for logic, that study guide for New Testament, and that assignment for class on Monday!  

Sorry to make this post so short, I was hoping to work on (or even finish) some of the longer posts that I am thinking about or working on, but I have to go to class...  That said, I'm not too glum anymore, doing everything in the name of the Lord not only means getting started and doing a good job, but also finding joy in it.  With that in mind: off to Logic!  

Your random fact of the day: Joy is something that the Gospel of Luke especially puts an emphasis on.  Just one example of this is his inclusion of several hymns of joy (Mary's Magnificat, Zechariah's Benedictus, the Angels' Gloria in Excelsis, and Simeon's Nunc Dimittis).  Cool!
 
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Rejoice! God Transforms our Crosses!

Today was the first day of classes, but, instead of just running through the day as I usually do, I want to connect the day with faith.  I mean, I'm in seminary, but often my posts, at least when I don't have a lot of time, just tell you what happened and leave it at that.  That, I think, isn't enough.  The point of this blog is to show seminary life, but seminary life is so much more than what happens to me each day, it also involves what God does to me each day.  It is learning to depend on God, and that is the topic of this post.

In my last class today, the mission and history of Catholic schools, which is the only evening class that I have taken at Marian (it goes from 6:30 to 9:30), the teacher ended class with a prayer from Thomas Merton.  The rest of the prayer is at the end of this post, but for now I just want to concentrate on one line: I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  

Now, having said that, lets look at the rest of the day.  I woke up tired because I went to bed late last night (after midnight).  I was trying to get things ready for today - order books, figure out my schedule, write a blog post, etc.  However, while it isn't a big deal when I would go to bed at midnight at home because I could sleep until 8 or so, here I am getting up at 5:45, which means I only had about 5 hours of sleep.  (Side note: I'm the type of person that really wants 8 hours of sleep, maybe 9, so 5 is not cool at all...)  

Anyway, today my classes started at 10 AM with Philosophical Themes in Catholic Authors, then at noon Logic, at 1 God and Philosophy, and the one on Catholic education at 6:30.  Don't get me wrong, philosophy isn't easy, but I still have been learning a ton in my philosophy classes and have started to look forward to them.  Well, this morning I wasn't quite as enthusiastic (I'll blame it on the lack of sleep), and so I went to class hoping that whatever the professor said would get me interested.  

Well, in the first class, Philosophical Themes in Catholic Authors, the professor opened class by lambasting students who don't read everything from the works they are assigned, and proceeded to explain that we would have a quiz every day so that he could ascertain that we had read everything and had thought about it.  Now, again, don't get me wrong, I always intend to read what I am assigned, but I was really hoping that this class wouldn't be the hard kind - I know, it's philosophy, how would it be easy? - but still, I was really hoping that despite my taking 19 credit hours this semester it would turn out easier.  On top of this, the teacher explained that we would have a 7-9 page paper due at the end of the semester, which I really did expect, but for whatever reason was really hoping I wouldn't hear this morning.

I had a break of 1 hour before my second class which I spent in the library, mostly just wasting time (I had nothing I could do just yet in class and I didn't force myself to do something else productive - you know, finish my application to the NAC, or write a blog post, or something).  Then I grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to logic.  Now, this is the same professor as Metaphysics last year - and his classes are always rock solid and just plain fantastic, so I was really hoping he could get me fired up for this semester.  Well, as you might guess, it didn't quite happen.  The little things, like the fact that the room was packed, or I wasn't concentrating too well, or the joking around that would normally have been a lot of fun, but instead was distracting, just annoyed me I guess.  I mean, I wasn't mad, I just wasn't very happy...

Alright, well the same pattern continued into my third class, again, one I was sure I would enjoy, God and Philosophy.  This was the topic that finally got me interested in philosophy last semester - how we can understand something about God, how faith and reason can overlap - and it was a teacher who I had only heard stellar things about.  Guess what, again, I failed to get enthused.  I guess I was just a bit tired or something, but for whatever reason I was only concentrating on how difficult the class could be - all that reading, the quizzes, the paper, whatever - and not how awesome, or fun, or educational it could be.

So, back to my final class, the dreaded Mission and History of Catholic Schools.  It is a 5 week class that meets on Monday evenings - so I was thinking it couldn't be too hard - but it was still in the evening, I was still tired (despite a short nap this afternoon), and I was still a bit glum from not having a great first day.  So, basically, I was pretty unexcited.  I didn't even want to offer the difficulties up - it was just an off day.  Anyway, I sit down around 6:30 and a few minutes later the teacher walks in and proceeds to spend the next hour introducing the topic (which I was happily surprised, looked to be pretty solidly Catholic) and then having the rest of us introduce ourselves (myself and another seminarian are in the class along with 5 young ladies, all of whom seem to be pretty strong Catholics, and most of whom are planning on becoming teachers).  I was starting, in the class I least expected to, to become interested.  We continued to run through some basics, she outlined how the 2 fundamental differences of Catholic schools are the fact that it is meant for the furthering of the Church and the faith (seems pretty solid) and is funded by the Church, not the state (which is partially accurate, but certainly still a big differentiator).  Finally, she ended with that prayer.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.
Bam, it hit me.  I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  I went back to Brute and got to catch the last 10 minutes of Adoration, after which I prayed a rosary, and what kept running through my head was the fact that anything, even if it is tough, not what I want, or not what I expected, can be offered up to Christ and transformed by Him so that it brings me - if only because I have to pray more to get through it - closer to Him.  Just wanting to do something for Christ is doing something for Him.  While praying about this, I started thinking about all this and I was trying to see how I could say that joy could be found, even in things you don't like, just by doing them for God, or maybe even seeing them as part of His plan.  I settled on the fact that doing anything for God brings us closer to Him, where true joy and peace and love is found, and so, wham, you are better off (even if you didn't like whatever you were gonna have to do).  

But, the amazing thing is that as I write this post I have become more and more excited about all these classes.  I, right now, can't wait until Wednesday to dive back into this stuff.  You know that rush of adrenaline that happens when you are excited - yeah, that just hit me!  Oh man, this is going to be a great semester.  Those Catholic Authors - come on, it's Flannery O'Connor and C.S. Lewis, bring it on, quizzes or not!  Those dry logical arguments - forget the boring stuff, I'm in a class with 20 other seminarians and one of my favorite teachers, this is going to be a blast!  That work-intensive God and Philosophy class - this stuff is the absolute epitome of philosophy, it's what I loved so much about last semester, it's going to be fantastic!   That Catholic education class - its full of excited, young Catholics, ready to dedicate their lives to the church and to their God, talk about enthusiasm!

Yeah, so God managed to not only get me to offer up the struggles to Him but also completely transform my way of looking at them.  Thank you God!  This semester is going to be great!  And with that, I'm going to bed... Huzzah!  As always, there is so much more to say on this topic, but I really do want to post more often, so I think I may just stick to a big point or two and try to show how seminary life connects up to them.  We'll see if it works out.
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Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

This semester has been absolutely flying by. Not only has every week sped by, due to a relatively heavy course load (last week it still felt like Tuesday on Thursday), but the weekends too have been absolutely chock full of stuff to do (sports, hanging out, events, talks, homework, ministry). It's now my third semester in the seminary, and each one gets better and better. Sure, there were some ups and downs, but seriously, overall it has been absolutely phenomenal so far. That is why I am so surprised at the fact that it is almost over. I only have one full week of classes left (this week is cut short by NCYC, next week by thanksgiving, and the week after that is the week before finals)! It's absolutely crazy! I can clearly remember moving in at the beginning of the semester, and meeting all the new guys, and the first week of classes, and the first wave of tests, and the first discernment dinner, and the many, many community dinners, and the talks on campus, and the midterms, and the soccer tournament, and wow, there has just been so much happening... It has been wonderful, overwhelming, full of growth, and (almost) constant joy! Some of the guys are starting to want the semester to end; I feel like it has just begun. There is so much more to learn, so many more prayers to be said, so much more growth to be had, so much more fun to do. Gosh, I guess it's not a bad problem to have. God is so good! 

Well, that's all for now - sorry, I really want to write something fantastic, deep, and funny, but I'm currently deep into my Augustine/Aquinas and Senior Seminar papers (neither of which will finish themselves), and I should probably focus on getting those done first. Love God, Have fun, and Be Not Afraid!

Please let me know in the comments if this post is almost unreadable because the words are chopped off at the end of each line.  I keep seeing it on my end, and want to make sure that it is just a problem with my computer...  Thanks!
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Day 6 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Alright, well I guess I'll start this post the same as the others, at the very beginning of the day. Today, because it is Saturday, we have Morning Prayer and Mass at 9:30.  Thus, I rolled out of bed around 8:30, took a shower, threw my laundry into the washer, and got to the chapel around 9:10.  I prayed the Office of Readings and had a few moments of meditation before Morning Prayer began.  Today the intercessions really jumped out at me:
Let us all praise Christ.  In order to become our faithful and merciful high priest before the Father's throne, he chose to become one of us, a brother in all things.  In prayer we ask of him: Lord, share with us the treasure of you love.  Sun of Justice, you filled us with the light at our baptism, - we dedicated this day to you.  At every hour of the day, we give you glory, - in all our deeds, we offer you praise.  Mary, your mother, was obedient to you word, - direct our lives in accordance with that word.  Our lives are surrounded with passing things; set our hearts on things of heaven, - so that through faith, hope and charity we may come to enjoy the vision of your glory.
Mass was also really, really awesome!  Today the reading was when Jesus tells his disciples that He will have to die, and they don't believe him.  

"While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you.  The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.”  But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying." - Luke 9:43-45
Looking back at this reading (I managed to forget what struck me during Mass), I think that it's important to see that the disciples didn't go to Jesus with their misunderstandings out of fear.  We should never fear to go to Jesus; He is incarnate truth.  Fr. Bob made a good point in his homily - we should never fear the truth.  Sometimes it is hard to understand, sometimes it forces us to lose something, sometimes it means doing things that other people think are crazy, but truth always brings us closer to God, and that is where we need to be.  I guess I haven't meditated on it much because that is about as far as thought has gone so far, but hopefully it gets one of you thinking.  (If you have a breakthrough, throw it in the comments!)

After Mass I pretty much skipped breakfast, because we were having a community lunch later (and I wanted to save room).  Every Saturday morning we have a work session.  All the guys are in one of four groups, indoor, outdoor, kitchen, and chapel.  This year I am on the outdoor team, and today my job was to organize the shed that holds all our tools.  I thought it would be an easy and fun job - I was right on the second point, but not on the first.  We had way more tools, pots, assorted doo-dads, power-equipment, and junk than I thought.  However, for whatever reason, the organizational side of things was fun.  It's kind of like a puzzle: what tool would best fit on this hook?  Where should that shelf go that would keep everything on it accessible, but allow the maximum amount of storage around it?  I was also reminded just how fast things can get done when you have a bunch of guys working on it.  I threw about half the stuff out of the shed to give myself some room to sweep the dirt out and be able to move things around, but because of my previous underestimation of the scale of the project, most of the stuff didn't have a home yet when we ran out of time.  With 5 or so guys helping though, everything had been returned inside the shed within a matter of minutes.  Good times!

Zach's parents, who came in to cook up lunch (and I suppose visit their son), cooked us spaghetti and meatballs, with salad, cheesy-garlic bread, and apple and pumpkin pie.  It was absolutely delicious.  Gosh, I look forward to those meals so much, the food is always wonderful!  (The leftovers are also fantastic).  Before lunch, we were snacking on m&m's that they had set out on the tables, but these were candy-corn m&m's.  Very interesting (in a good way)!

After lunch I quickly took a shower (to get rid of the crusty feeling from the work session), and Ray and I drove over to St. Paul's Hermitage.  This is a nursing/retirement home run by Benedictine sisters over on the south side of Indianapolis.  Ray and I both got assigned to the same location (kind of unique I think), and we are probably going to head over there every Saturday afternoon.  Anyway, we went over there last week and got an introduction/tour of the place by one of the sisters, but this week was our first "real" week, where we started to visit the residents.  I was a bit trepidatious before starting, just because I didn't know how we would keep a conversation going for an hour or more with the folks here.  I'm not a huge sanguine (and I don't think Ray would put himself in that category either), so it's definitely going to stretch us (in a good way) going over there every week.  However, today the woman that we visited knew it was our first time and was literally trying to show us the ropes of how to visit the elderly/infirm.  I have no idea how old she is, but I can only hope that I am in her condition when I am her age.  She talked to us the entire time, showed us around the hallways, asked questions...  It was fantastic!  I think this ministry will be really good for me, and this fantastic start to it has only reinforced this thought.

We got back after a few hours, and I took it pretty easy for the rest of the afternoon.  I totally wanted to take a nap, but for whatever reason I never got to it.  I did spend some time on the computer, I wandered the halls a bit - I don't know - nothing much happened, and that was actually kind of nice.  I said mid-afternoon prayer around 4 PM, and then watched some guys play pool.  I also watched a bit of the Notre Dame game at 5 or so.  I did doze a little bit while watching it (actually, I have this funny quirk of sleeping with my eyes open, so I left the other guys guessing as to whether I was sleeping or watching.  Yeah, it's pretty cool, or maybe just creepy...)

I finally was starting to feel hungry (after the huge lunch) so I decided to make myself a meatball sandwich with the leftovers.  Of course, Corey was working on making fried pickles when I got to the kitchen, so I had to have some of those.  And then other guys wanted some, so I (coached by Corey) made some more batches of the pickles.  They were really really good!  I played a game or two of pool with the guys that were now hanging out around the kitchen (our game room is now right across from the kitchen), and then went up to the chapel for a Holy Hour.  Usually we don't have an hour of Adoration on Saturday (the only day), but today there was enough interest to have one.  I said Evening Prayer, the Rosary, and then read some more out of The Priest is Not His Own.  This book keeps hitting me right in between the eyes.  Today the chapter was on being poor in spirit, and how the priest absolutely must not be attached to earthly goods.  As Bishop Sheen explained this doesn't mean that he can't own things, or all his possessions must be worn-out, but he must have the right ordering of these things in regard to the eternal goods.  Your fantastic quote of the day: "Poverty of spirit does not begin with an act of the will to do with less;  it begins with the Spirit of Christ in us." - page 126  Awesome!

After the Holy Hour I again wandered down to the kitchen.  I played a few more games of pool (I haven't won too many games, but it is a lot of fun!).  Corey was now working on fried oreos, which are absolutely fantastic, completely delicious, spectacularly phenomenal - in other words really tasty.  I played a game of chess with one of the other guys.  It was a lot of fun, I haven't played chess in forever (more like 3 years or something), and I eventually lost.  I didn't go down too easily though, my king was hopping around quite a bit for the last 10 moves or so...   

Good night everybody!  This post seems shorter than the others and it still took me over an hour to write...  Hope you guys are enjoying them!  Tomorrow the schola will be singing for Mass, so I need to get to bed (we are practicing before Mass)... We'll see what else happens!  
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Be Not Afraid – Be Prolife!

On October 22, 1978, then Pope John Paul II (newly elected) said in his first homily:
"Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. ... So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life." - emphasis mine
This short sentence has had a profound effect on my life (hence the name for my blog), and I think it is applicable to the topic that I want to address today, namely being active, courageous, on-fire, witnesses to Christ in our world.  Before I get started, a little background:  Yesterday night a bunch of the guys from Bruté (including myself), went to the annual pro-life dinner here in Indy.  The dinner was delicious, but the thing that had the bigger impact on me was the speeches.  The first, given by a high-school student who had won the pro-life oratory award for the year, and the second, given by Abby Johnson, who several years back had directed an abortion “clinic” before converting and becoming a pro-life advocate, were both pro-life speeches (go figure…)  However, what struck me was that neither of these speeches were patting us on the back.  We weren’t being praised for being pro-life; we were being called out, prodded, galvanized, to be more pro-life, more outspoken, more Christian.  I guess I was expecting them to just say that we all were doing a great job, that the people at the dinner were really generous donors, that they had more people at the March for Life than ever, etc.  However, instead the main message was “Wake Up!”, “Get To Work”, “Sacrifice”.  During the speeches I was like “huzzah - that’s what I’m talking about!”, but then I started to think about it and started to apply the speeches to me (instead of to everybody else), and I saw that I have a lot of work to do.  Hopefully, this post will turn out really good, but before I get going I want to give tons of credit to C.J. and Corey, who both have written exceptional (and I mean that) posts about this very topic.  They are faster at getting these things written than I am, so I am probably going to pull ideas from them (read their posts!).


OK, I began this post with the great quote from Blessed John Paul II, Be Not Afraid!  Folks, this is the heart of what it means to life out the Gospel, especially the Gospel of life, today.  Of course, I could boil it down the Gospel to something different (love comes to mind…), but here I am talking about the human side of things.  What keeps us from doing everything we need to in order to spread, protect, and relate the Gospel of life?  Fear.  We are afraid that others won’t listen, or won’t like what we are saying, or will persecute us because of it.  We are afraid that we will lost money, status, power, time, or friends, if we stand up for something that isn’t accepted.  We are afraid that we will lose something if we follow Christ.  Well folks, we will.  Christianity isn’t easy.  Jesus said pick up your cross and follow me.  Crosses were torture instruments.  (So yeah, not easy)  But, and this is a huge point, we will gain so much more than we will lose.  Look at Christ.  He became man, suffered horribly, and died – but then the resurrection happened.  Without the resurrection Christianity is nothing.  Not only would it seem that Jesus wasn’t divine (kind of a big thing, don’t you think?), our hope in an eventual afterlife and perfect happiness with God would be lost, and death and sin would be the victors.  The resurrection means that we can look to beyond this world, we can know that God has the final say, not evil, and that pain in this life can lead to everlasting bliss in the next.  Now, I’m not saying that suffering is a good thing in itself, but I think that when we pick up our cross, in this case our fear of loss (of money, power, or prestige) or doubt (of not knowing if we are capable), in order to follow Christ this is when He can bring about a resurrection, He can give us a 100-fold harvest, and He can bring us the tremendous joy of following Him.


Now wait a second, you say, – you just said Christianity was hard, it involved picking up crosses, and facing our fears for Christ, and then you immediately said that this can turn into joy – that doesn’t really follow…  But this is the deeply crazy truth of the resurrection; God can bring good out of evil, great positive out of great negative, great joy out of great sadness, great peace out of great fear.  This is where trust comes in; it’s not easy to surrender to God and say, sure, you can have my entire life, I’ll ignore the typical fears that I have and follow You.  The resurrection gives us this faith.  It is totally miraculous, supernatural, outside what we can expect, and in the same way, God’s ability to bring a greater good out of every evil, is something that takes supernatural faith.

I’m trying hard to turn this post toward what I really want to talk about – being prolife amid a culture that isn’t.  So, to begin this second section, another quote from JPII: Evangelium Vitae says (paragraph 82):
"In the proclamation of this Gospel [of life], we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking (cf. Rom 12:2). We must be in the world but not of the world (cf. Jn 15:19; 17:16), drawing our strength from Christ, who by his Death and Resurrection has overcome the world (cf. Jn 16:33)." - minor typo correction made
Obviously, I chose a passage that connected the first half of my post to the second, but I think that fear is really a huge obstacle to our following Christ, especially in the area of pro-life activism.  (Actually, I just noticed that Blessed Pope John Paul II connected it to the Resurrection – nice!)  In his post (link up above), C.J. said, echoing Abby Johnson, that the biggest problem that the pro-life movement has to overcome is apathy.  Corey, in his post on the same topic, said that we need to go from prayer and go!  What do these have in common?  Action!  Folks, don’t be afraid, don’t let the apathy that floods our culture infect you, don’t let human respect stop you from doing Christ’s work, don’t let hardship stop you from doing absolutely everything for Christ.  It’s time to be courageous (thanks Corey!), it’s time for action (thanks C.J.!), it’s time to get out there and fight!  Already pray? – Pray more!  Already sacrifice? –  Sacrifice more!  Already work? – Work more!  We are in a battle in which Christ asks us to give everything to Him, to trust Him in the midst of fear, hardship, and struggle, and let Him multiple are (all too often) pitiful bread and fish.  The eternal souls of billions of people are at stake, as are the lives of millions of unborn.  The respect of all life (including yours) is hanging in the balance.  Are you willing to give a bit more to save them?  Ready for a challenge? – Christ has given you the ultimate mission, get out there!  Talk to one extra person, give one extra dollar, pray one more minute after Mass.  Be not afraid!

This is a pretty good song for the occasion…  Enjoy!
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Make My Heart Like Unto Thine - get ready for humility

I don't know about all of you, but it sure seems like many, many, things seem to line up at once in the spiritual journey.  I guess God knows how "deaf" I am at times, and makes it glaringly obvious when I need to be working on something.  About a month ago, a priest recommended that I pray each morning "Make my heart like unto thine" to Jesus.  Basically, to accept His will in my life, and to resign myself to doing whatever came up that day to Him.  As a previous post had indicated the combination of work and Spanish left me with little free time (at least Monday-Friday) and I wasn't really accepting this as God's will for this summer.  Anyway, I had certainly heard the phrase before, but I hadn't (to use a terrible pun) taken it to heart.  Of course, shortly thereafter I heard (and then remembered) the first half of the phrase: "Jesus meek and humble of heart".  I don't know about you, but whenever I pray for humility, I seem to always get it.  You know, you think you are good at something and then you totally screw it up. 

On the second to last day of work I was carting around knocking out some of the last LOTO cabinets.  Before going out I had gotten the keys necessary to get into them, and it just so happened that this day I had 5 different keys.  Most of the previous times that I went out I only had 2 or 3 keys, but this day the cabinets that I needed to get into used 5 different keys.  Oh well, no big deal, off I went...  All the cabinets this day were "cooperating" so I was knocking out some of the last locks, replacing worn tags, etc., but after each cabinet I was very careful to check and make sure that I had all the keys.  They were all separate, and I usually had to go  through a few of them before I found the one that would work on this cabinet, so I made sure to count them after finishing each cabinet to make sure I hadn't dropped one (or left it in the cabinet, or whatever).  Anyway, on the last cabinet, I finished it up, counted my keys, and hopped back on the golf cart.  This particular department has the most awkward way of getting into it, and to get the cart out you pretty much have to back up this ramp, across another ramp, and then do a turn-about thing on the main thoroughfare (which has forklifts careening around).  Basically, it was a tricky spot for maneuvering the golf cart, so I was slowly backing my way up this ramp when, who should appear, but my boss (of course...) in his own golf cart coming down the ramp that I was trying to back up.  He graciously let me past and off I went back to the safety department happy that I hadn't hit my boss in the golf cart, that I had knocked out a few more issues, and I only had like 20 minutes before I was done for the day.
To my absolute horror (I am sweating right now thinking about it, though that may be my laptop...), when I got back to the safety department I only had 4 keys.  I was pretty much terrified, I had no idea if there were spares of these keys someplace, and even if they were - you can't just have anybody pick up the key to this cabinet and do whatever they want.  It was an absolute disaster, a total, complete, massive calamity.  Anyway, with heart pounding, I began to retrace my steps.  I had been all over the plant that afternoon, and the last time that I would have used that key was a few hours ago.  Of course, I had thought that I had checked all the keys after each department, but what if I hadn't?  It could be absolutely anywhere in this massive complex, which I still didn't understand, of different buildings, lines, machines, and offices.   That one key could be anywhere!  Anyway, back to the story, I retraced my steps back to the cart - nothing, back through the department that I last drove through - nothing, back across the parking lot - nothing, into the maintenance building - nothing.  And then the disaster got worse, I was about to check the last department that I had been to, where I had thought that I had counted all 5 keys, and there was my boss's golf cart.  He was in that department...  I scanned the plant floor, hoping that the key was somewhere, anywhere, but nothing.  I had to walk into that department and search for this key, right in front of my boss.  So, in I marched.  "hey Dominic, how's it going?" - "Um" gulp "ok..."  I nonchalantly (yeah right) looked on the table, in the trash can, and with a huge sigh of relief  spotted the key.  It was laying 6 inches from where my boss was sitting.  I picked it up - he noted "ah, lost a key, eh?" - "yeah..." - "don't do it again..."  I was so happy to see that key - thank goodness I found it, but did my boss have to be there?  I hadn't ever seen him before while out an about.  Yet, the one time that I lost a key (once!), he is sitting on top of it...  

Last year, in a somewhat related topic, at the winter seminarian get-together (today happens to be the summer one) the bishop had us think about a spiritual goal.  (I don't remember the exact exercise, but it was something like that.) Anyway, I came up with wanting to be a "man after God's own heart" - you know, the phrase said about David.  So I was thinking about how similar this phrase is to making my heart like unto Jesus' and I see an obvious similarity - humility.  Think about David, here is this young kid, kills Goliath by trusting in God,  anointed king of Israel, winning battles left and right, everything that he could want in the world, and yet, has a pretty good relationship with God - what a life!  Then he sins with Bathsheba, and kills Uriah to hide it.  Then, instead of the sin being hidden Nathan shows up, gives him that story about the rich man stealing the poor man's lamb, and David is like "that man should be put to death!" (I am definitely paraphrasing).  Then Nathan is like "that man is you" (again my paraphrasing from the Old Testament from memory).  David, of course, is humiliated - his "hidden" sin, isn't so hidden anymore.  But here's the thing, instead of being proud and arrogant, he humbles himself before God and begs for forgiveness.

The "man after God's own heart" stays that way because he is humble.  Much like myself, I think everything is going great, and WHAM! I'm hit with some problem.  I think God is telling me - rely on Him, trust Him, let Him work in my life.  In Psalm 51:10 David says "Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew in me a steadfast spirit".  (paraphrase)  These moments of humiliation can be super-naturalized into moments to grow in the virtue of humility.  Times when we stumble can lead to repentance (confession is pretty humbling for good reason), times when we make a mistake can lead to greater reliance and trust in God (St. Anthony's intercession really came through for me!), etc.  Humility, as I heard on the Catholic Answers podcast the other day (which are fantastic, by the way), is very much related to living truthfully.  It isn't being a "door mat" that everybody else can walk across - poor, little me, I can't do anything... (NOT!), it is acknowledging before other people, and especially God that we are good at some things, and that we aren't good at others.  Of course, in our relationship with God, this involves both repentance for our sins and thankfulness for our blessings, both of which are a form of trust and reliance upon Him.  


Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine 
repentant, thankful, trusting, loving, merciful, prayerful
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God Can Sanctify Even the Boring - If you let Him

This will be a short post because almost all my free time (after work) is taken up by Spanish... (which is actually turning out a little better than expected).  The last several days at work has been mostly comprised of singing off on what is called awareness training.  Basically, everybody has to come in once a year and take these computerized tests that tell them what is unsafe (and that they shouldn't do that).  Well, there are 24 different tests that everybody has to take and after they all get done I (or somebody in the safety department) has to go through the 24 printouts and make sure that they are in order, signed, dated, passed, etc.  I'll cut to the chase; each folder takes about 10 minutes to go through (I triple check my work because screwing up is not good), and it is beyond tedious.  The first few days I was seriously struggling to concentrate while doing this - just so boring.  Anyway, today, especially because it was a Monday, I didn't feel all that pumped up about a new work-week starting, with more folders to go through and everything that went with it.  And that is pretty much what I told God when I went to Mass.  You know, it's pretty easy to thank God when something is great, or pray for help when something is hard, but when something is just boring, it's hard to see where God comes into the picture.  I mean, you could offer it up, but what's the point?  

Jesus was a carpenter for much of His life
I'd guess it wasn't particularly interesting or exciting most of the time.
Of course, that is the wrong way to think about it, but that is kind of how I was approaching the week.  This, I knew wasn't going to get me anywhere.  Seriously, if I stayed all glum and pessimistic about working, doing Spanish, and basically anything else that I wasn't interested in, then approximately 90% of my life was going to be boring.  (OK, so I didn't exactly think about all that right at that moment - but it is true, I really look forward to the days where I do something fun, exciting, adventurous, etc. and I really don't look forward to the days where I have to do something, you know, that isn't cool).  Thus, I told God, fire me up, transform me, change me to who you want me to be, incinerate all the stuff that is clogging my life, especially my soul, and turn me into who you want me to be.  (I got some of this inspiration from this post of Corey's)

Now, as I am sure some of you have realized, if you ask God to transform you, He will.  Let's just say that I have a long way to go, but, getting back to where this post got started, work today, despite being 7 something hours of flipping, checking, and signing away on these papers (I went through 38 or so folders - which is just about 1000 signatures...) I wasn't ever bored out of my mind, I concentrated pretty well, I got a lot done (as you can see), and I, every so often, was reminded that I can do even the most boring things for God.  (Think St. Therese of Lisieux's Little Way, or Mother Theresa of Calcutta's Little things with great love).  

It is amazing what happens when you let God work in you.  (I am going to try surrendering the whole Spanish thing to Him.  It's amazing how I managed to forget to do that...)  This is just one of those things that I know I need to work on - surrendering everything  to God.  Ah well, I am definitely a work in progress - thankfully God is a much better worker than I am.
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86 Years in the Cloister

I saw today on a headline that an 105 year old nun, who lived in a cloistered monastery in Spain, died on Wednesday after some 86 years in the cloister.  She did leave it on two occasions during that time, once when other nuns in her community were sick, and again a few years ago to meet then Pope Benedict XVI when he came to Madrid for World Youth Day - the rest of the time she was in that same monastery!  Some perspective: Sister Teresita Barajuen entered the convent in the same year that Mt. Rushmore began to be carved, the first transatlantic telephone call was made, and the world's population crossed 2 billion.  (wow!)  Quoting from an EWTN interview from January.  She said: "Even if I had married a prince, I would not be happier than I am now,”.  So Awesome!

sources:

In a different topic, sorry for the lack of posts on what is going on with me these days.  The last half of vacation was wonderful, but it did end, and now I am back to "real life".  Basically, this means that I am working full time and Spanish class has started.  Both will last for about the next 8 weeks.  Say some prayers for me (please); I didn't learn the 1st semester of Spanish when I took it a few years back, and anything I did learn has now totally disappeared.  Also, the book is written (mostly) in Spanish, so I am pretty much clueless.  Let's just say that I have never considered dropping a class until now...
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