Our Members' Blogs

Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The scandal of Christ's wounds

By Pat Knight


doubting-thomas
Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio (Wikimedia Commons)



Last weekend during his sermon at the canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II, Pope Francis talked about Christ in His resurrected form. “The wounds of Jesus are a scandal, a stumbling block for faith, yet they are also the test of faith.”

These words have echoed in my head since Divine Mercy  +Sunday, as they strike so true. Christ’s wounds do cause doubt in me; how could God Himself have been injured? How could He have allowed Himself to die? Does He have limitations? Having doubt is unfortunately inevitable for a Catholic.

Even the apostles who walked, saw, and knew Jesus felt doubt. St. Thomas refused to believe in the resurrection unless he saw it for himself, Peter denied Christ three times. Losing faith doesn’t have to be an extreme. We don’t have to wake up every morning and question the existence of God to have doubt.

We have doubt whenever we worry, whenever we forget to rely completely on His will. Peter doubted when he lost trust in Jesus and fell into the water, instead of continuing to walk. It’s hard a lot of the time not to worry, but we can’t. God loves us so much that He died for us.


Pat Knight is a contributing blogger to Love is Calling.

Monday, April 21, 2014

The journey of love

By Robert Batch



File:72 Mark’s Gospel Z. the empty tomb image 1 of 1. the empty tomb. Smirke.gif


A journey of love is a journey that brings us life.  John 10:10: He came so that we may have life to the fullest.

The Easter Sunday Gospel, describes a journey that Mary Magdalene takes to tell everyone about the Risen Christ.  ”He has been raised from the dead, and indeed is going ahead of you to Galilee.”

Pope Francis mentioned in his Easter Vigil homily last night in Rome, that to return to Galilee means to “re-read everything on the basis of the Cross and it’s victory”  We must take into account all of what Christ did during His earthly ministry, even the betrayal and the crucifixion.

The journey that Christ took on the hill to Calvary was not just a beating, or a act of sacrifice. It was a Journey of Love that gave us life in the resurrection.  During this Easter season let us all discover our Journey of Love.

Let us all experience the Easter Joy, let us all experience a new resurrection, a new life in which the tomb does not have power!


Robert originally posted this as his blog Love is Calling.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Are you listening to the white noise of life?

By Robert Batch


File:RCA 621TS Television Receiver (1946) with optional blonde cabinet, MoMI.jpg
RCA 621TS Television Receiver (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).



I was down at my cousins' house for the evening to celebrate their grandma’s 90th birthday!  I have to say that whenever the cousins get together it is always an…interesting time to say the least.  I say that with a very, very positive attitude!

As I was driving back home it was quite the ride.  For one, the weather is absolutely dreadful outside!  It has been raining all day, so it made it quite difficult to see what was going on, on the roads.  Plus, with the rain, it was interfering with the radio signal.  There are a few good stations around where I live – but one of my favorite ones is Star 99.1 – a Christian Radio Station.  Anyway, as I was scanning through the frequencies, I kept hitting the famous static “white noise”.  So now we have static white noise, and bad weather, it’s really not going so well!

You are probably thinking to yourself – wow, Robert is really on a tangent today.  Patience!!!

When I finally made it home I realized, there is something to be learned from the “white noise”, besides being patient.  There is something to be learned when we have “white noise” in our lives, on the radio, or the television or our cell phones when we have bad reception.  Distractions, media, the news, music, relationships. See, we get frustrated when we hear the white noise on the radio because we want to hear more noise!  I feel as though this can relate to our lives as Catholics as well.


Continue reading at Robert's blog  Love is Calling.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

What's Pope Francis' consecration of the world got to do with me?

by Anabelle Hazard



File:Blessed Virgin Mary.jpg
The immaculate Heart of Mary, artist unknown.


With all the post-interview spotlight beaming/glaring on Pope Francis, I hope all Catholics and secular media alike pay careful attention to what he did last October 13th, 2013: consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Specifically, I wish he makes everyone wonder: what this consecration means to me on a personal level, why is it so significant, and hopefully, make us all want to jump in.

Consecration means to dedicate an object or person thing toward a specific purpose. When one consecrates himself to Mary, he gives himself over to her hands so that she can teach and mold him for the purpose to which God created him.  St. Louis de Montfort writes that Mary is the “surest, easiest, shortest and most perfect means” to becoming like her Son Jesus.  Technically speaking, it is consecrating oneself to union with Jesus through Mary. Since Mary is in full union with the Divine Will, her mission is always to serve the Divine Will, particularly to help the formation and sanctification of souls. Mary, in short, helps us become the purpose for which we are created: saints. 

Blessed Pope John Paul II and St. Maximilian Kolbe are the two most famous saints in our history who consecrated themselves to Mary.  Blessed John Paul II, who dedicated his papacy to Mary with the motif Totus Tuus, is on the record-breaking fast track to canonization.  Granted, St. Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom is not the easiest path, but it was the surest one, and one he willingly accepted. 

The significance of consecration is that it is a covenant with a dual dimension

A person consecrated to Mary entrusts everything he has to her: body, soul, material possessions, spiritual goods (like merits and virtues), everything in his past, present and future.  Mary takes the gift (often imperfect because of human flaws and selfish motives), and presents the gift to Jesus perfectly wrapped. St. Louis de Montfort illustrated this analogy: a humble farmer offers his only fruit --a scruffy, bruised, worm-bitten apple-- to the King through the hands of the Queen.  The Immaculate Queen, conceived without sin, polishes that gift with her merits, and embellishes it with her virtues.  The gift becomes a purer, more pleasing version than what came out of the farmer’s own efforts.

Continue reading at Anabelle's blog Written by the Finger of God.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Are you following the Holy Spirit or the world's spirit?

by Colleen Spiro



File:WLA lacma 1667 banquet still life.jpg
Banquet Still Life by Abraham van Beyeren (photo credit: Wikipedia Loves Art project).



In a recent homily, Pope Frances said, "… We cannot pick and mix, no? A bit of the Holy Spirit, a bit of the spirit of this world… No! It’s one thing or the other.”

Pope Francis said that we need to open our hearts up to the consolation of the Holy Spirit so that this consolation, "allows us to understand these commandments."

So we either follow the world's teachings. Or we follow Jesus' teachings.

One thing or the other.

One of the phrases used in recent years is "cafeteria" Catholics. This term is used to describe those Catholics who pick and choose what church teachings that they are going to follow. "Pick and mix," to use the pope's words.

We do not always understand the teachings. We do not always understand the why or how or what of them. Perhaps we have a strong opinion that goes against the teaching.
But our opinion is not what is needed here.

Prayer. Prayer is needed. Prayer to the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Church's teaching, to help us inform our conscience. To help us know - which spirit are we following? The Holy Spirit? Or the world's spirit?

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." - St. Augustine


Colleen originally posted this at her blog  Thoughts on Grace.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Spiritual practices: going on retreat

by Ruth Ann Pilney
 
 
 
 
File:Carava13.jpg
Martha and Mary Magdalen  by Caravaggio (photo credit:Wikimedia Commons).
 
 
In Sunday's Gospel, the story of sisters Martha and Mary who welcomed Jesus into their home, we heard the Lord saying,
Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.
This narrative of the two sisters highlights the value of spending time away from the hustle and bustle of everyday living to focus intently on simply being with God in prayer and contemplation.
If we look towards Jesus, we see that prior to any important decision or event he recollected himself in intense and prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even amid the whirlwind of more urgent and pressing duties. .... Herein lies the secret of the fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord!  ~ Holy Father, Pope Francis
Sometimes it is good for one's soul to withdraw from the turbulence of everyday life and spend an extended period of time in prayer and reflection at a secluded and quiet location.   I have recently returned from a 6-day silent, directed retreat.  This is something I do regularly to keep myself grounded in my commitment to walk with Christ.


Continue reading at Ruth Ann's blog  From the Pulpit of My Life.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Can we remember the love story?

by Colleen Spiro



File:David Teniers (II) - The Works of Mercy - WGA22084.jpg
The Works of Mercy by David Teniers (photo in Public Domain).





I love this recent quote from Pope Francis in an April homily -

"We, the women and men of the Church, we are in the middle of a love story: each of us is a link in this chain of love. And if we do not understand this, we have understood nothing of what the Church is.”

Do we understand what the Church is? Do we remember that we are in the "middle of a love story"?

Some comments and questions don’t sound like it:
"The Church needs to come into the 21st century."
"We should allow birth control."
"When are women going to be ordained?"


I actually read a comment from a woman who said that she was going to leave the Church if it did not start ordaining women. I think she missed the love story part.

The Church is not a democracy. Majority does not rule here. We don’t get to vote on changing the Ten Commandments, for heaven's sake.

Have we forgotten who is in charge here?

"Christ said, 'I am the Truth'; he did not say 'I am the custom.'" -St. Toribio (1538-1606)

And then there is the infighting that has really driven me crazy. Disagreements are one thing, but some people are very uncharitable. Even Pope Francis, in a speech to the cardinals before his election as pope, referred to the harsh comments and "hypercriticism" being found in blogs and comment boxes.


Continue reading at Colleen's blog  Thoughts on Grace

Friday, June 14, 2013

Receiving our Joy

by Colleen Spiro



File:Ingres the virgin of the host.jpg
The Virgin of the Host by Ingres (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons).

 


Pope Francis was recently quoted as saying that "Sometimes these melancholic Christians' faces have more in common with pickled peppers than the joy of having a beautiful life"(homily, May 10, 2013).

I once heard a speaker say that too many people walk around church like they have been baptized in "pickle juice." Where is the joy, she asked?

Several years ago my husband and I were attending Mass at a church out of town. It was tourist season and the parish was holding an extra Mass in their parish hall. During communion, we were seated behind one of the priests distributing communion so I had a good look at everyone's face as they came up to receive the Body of Christ. Almost every single person had a sour look. Pickle juice.

It was my turn to ask, Where is the joy?

Perhaps many of us think that looking reverent means looking serious. Nothing wrong with that, but still, I think of what St. John Vianney said:

"Without the divine Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be unbearable. When we receive Holy Communion we receive our joy and happiness." 


Continue reading at Thoughts on Grace.