STOP! We need a brick wall to stop our mental freight train.

Our world is full of frenzy, distraction, and gratification. Every day more Tweets, IM’s, texts, FaceBooks (don’t know if that works in the plural), and calls flood into our heads.

Silence! “Why?” you ask.

The more information, the less know. The more “Friends” and “Followers”, the more lonely we become. The more we hear, the less we listen. Sometimes we’re doing a thousand things but getting nowhere. Our daily life is full of activity, but it’s not fulfilling.

How can we be happy, fulfilled, and successful? We have to go deep with ourselves and with God. How do we go deep? Start creating silence by stopping life with a brick wall.

“Easy for him to say,” you think, “he lives in a seminary.” But the clerical collar doesn’t double as a set of earplugs.

***

Class is over. I have a message to send and a call to make before dashing off to give a tour at St. Peter’s Basilica. Walking out the door, I press the phone to my ear with one hand and button my overcoat with the other. On the train. Off the train. Into St. Peter’s Square.

The brick wall to stop the thought freight train comes three hours and a few thousand words later! The large steel gate slowly slides open, and back at the seminary, I step into a different world. Screeching tires, horns, sirens, and the rumble of traffic are all left behind.

***

Life at a desk is no less chaotic. I rush to the office hoping to finish a pending article. Ring… The phone yanks my attention away. I have less than five minutes.

Knock, knock – someone is at the door. Two minutes left, but I’m still in the middle of the conversation. A loud buzz catches us both by surprise – a bell to tell us it’s time for the rosary.

The brick wall stops me, my email, and my conversation. It’s time to pray with my fellow seminarians.

***

Almost any visitor to the seminary comments, “It’s so peaceful, so silent.” The cause of the sensation is hard to nail down, but it’s there.

The dictionary defines silence as the “forbearance from speech or noise”. I disagree. Otherwise eight hours of sleep would be plenty of silence for anyone.

Silence is the “forbearance of speech or noise” to be alone with God and get to know ourselves and him better.

If we paid as much attention to God and ourselves in silence as we do to FaceBook, Twitter, and the phone, we’d be men and saints already!

That’s what I love about the seminary. Silence reigns – not just an absence of external noise but rather an internal attitude that sustains everything I do. There is a deep attentiveness to the needs of others and to the will of God that determines everything else. It’s not the total absence of activity, but having enough brick walls to stop and remind me what’s important

I can hear it again. “You’re in the seminary. What about me?” There are many ways to live silence without joining the seminary. Here are four practical tips:

1. Answer the question.

Do you really want to live silence? You have to feel the need to take a step back and find some real answers. Not everything worth hearing will come from an MP3 player or is on the internet.

The answers to the deepest questions of your life are to be found in silence. What will make you happy? What is your vocation? Who is God?

Make a commitment to live silence.

2. Use earbuds sparingly.

Music and external noise is fine in controlled doses. But if your head is full of the latest release, you can barely hear yourself let alone God.

If you feel a compulsive urge to stick them in as soon as you hang up the phone or walk out the door, why not limit music to specific times of day? Think, reflect, and pray in the other times of silence.

3. Come up for air.

Every so often, we need to take a silent step back from everything. Work, study, food, sleep, workouts – life accelerates, but we need to stop the freight train of our mind every so often.

After class, after lunch, or 10 minutes before you go to bed, shut the laptop. Silence the phone. Close the door. Reflect and pray.

4. Brick walls, not traffic lights.

You might be asking – why a brick wall? Wouldn’t a traffic light do? If your mind is going 80 mph, a red light is only going to make you feel guilty as you speed through.

So you need to be abrupt and demanding – put up some brick walls. It’s not about just turning the volume down a little, you need daily silence and personal prayer.
As we start Lent on Ash Wednesday, it’s a great opportunity to look at Jesus. After St. John baptized him in the Jordan, he went into the desert. If God lived 40 days of silent reflection, 24 hours a day, we can handle five minutes.

As Mother Theresa said:

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.

Copyright 2012 Br. Mark Thelen, L.C.

Prayer is a way to develop holiness during a regular day. Conversing with God can help one to become more aware of one’s purpose in life. Actions become more Christlike, as one longs to be nearer to him. The further one is from God, the harder it becomes to imitate him. Just as the more time one spends with a certain friend, the more one tends to act like that person.

Fasting can be from food, as with Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, or abstaining from meat on Lenten Fridays. It can also be giving up something that takes up time that could otherwise be used for God. In these days, social networking, the internet, and television seem to consume a lot of time in families. Maybe devoting less time to these technological outlets, and instead, spending more time in spiritual development could be a good way of fasting.

Almsgiving is tied closely to fasting, and can involve giving up time or possessions. Going through some old clothes and donating them to those in need can be an act of almsgiving. Maybe spending some time volunteering at a soup kitchen can bring one closer to God during Lent.

No matter how one decides to journey through Lent, all the way one is longing for the coming of Christ at Easter. As long as one makes effort to focus on the true meaning of Lent, there will be graces that follow. Enjoy the journey, and He will rejoice with you at His coming!

Copyright 2012 Tanya Weitzel

I have a ton of chicken scratch notes written on this chapter, so hopefully I can decipher them all to share with you.

**Anything in quotes that is not otherwise credited is from Christopher West, either the text of the study guide or loosely transcribed from his talk.

To review: Christopher West has been walking us through the Cliff’s Notes to JPII’s 129 talks collectively called The Theology of the Body. We’ve been seeking to answer two questions:

1. What does it mean to be human? (A: to love as God loves. We’ve covered origin, history, and destiny – done.)
2. How do we live our lives to find true happiness? (coming up: celibacy for the kingdom, marriage, specific questions of sexuality and happiness in marriage)

Christ’s Invitation

“Some have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19:12)

First we need to understand the meaning of the word “eunuch.” A eunuch, according to West, is someone who is physically incapable of sex or procreation. Therefore, a “eunuch for the kingdom” is someone who is capable, but freely decides to forego sex and procreation. One would do this “in order to devote all of his energies and desires to the union that alone can satisfy.”

“Those who are celibate for the kingdom share the same vocation to love [as God loves] as those who marry, but manifest this same vocation in a different manner.” Scripture is bookended by two marriages – the union of man and woman in Genesis and the union of the Church and God in Revelation. God makes it clear that the ultimate goal is not human marriage, but the marriage of the Lamb.

Those who choose the marriage of Christ and His Church while here on earth, “skipping” earthly marriage so to speak, “boldly proclaim that ‘the kingdom of God is here.’ They are fostering the children of God, not rejecting their sexuality. That word is overused in our culture such that its meaning has been watered down and misappropriated. “Sexuality” has been reduced to a verb, something we do. In reality, it simply means our male-ness or female-ness. Celibates don’t trade in their sexuality, their male- or female-ness – Rather they “live out of the ultimate meaning of our lives and what is to come.”

“The one who…adequately ‘grasps’ the call to [celibacy] for the kingdom of heaven…preserves the integral truth of his humanity without losing along the way any of the essential elements of the vacation of the person created ‘in the image and likeness of God.’” (Theology of the Body 77:1)

In other words, God is the eternal exchange of love, and we are called to participate in that exchange. Humans can choose marriage or celibacy to achieve that:

“Celibacy for the kingdom points to the authentic development of the image and likeness of God, in its trinitarian meaning, that is, in its meaning precisely of ‘communion.’” (TOB 77:2)

For those who choose marriage, it’s important to remember that we cannot seek (or find) our ultimate fulfillment or ultimate satisfaction in our spouses. Heaven must retain that role. If we expect ultimate anything from marriage, husbands and wives will argue and feel bitter about their relationship.

Because we are built to long for the infinite life of Heaven, anything here on earth falls short by definition. Marriage is a Sacrament, and the definition of a Sacrament is a foreshadowing of the Heavenly mystery. We don’t have Sacraments in Heaven because we don’t need them anymore; we’re there with God!

Is Celibacy Better Than Marriage?

The world often sees the Church’s views on marriage and celibacy as crazy:

1. On the one hand we limit sex to one person
2. On the other, some people totally give it up

In the eyes of the sex-saturated world, seeking only temporal pleasure, that is, by definition, crazy!

What we know that they don’t: sex is not the ultimate fulfillment. Those folks who are looking for their savior in bed are sorely disappointed. If there really is nothing better than sex in the world and beyond, is this a life worth living?? That’s what the world would have us believe, that this is the end. Good thing there IS something better:

“He who marries…does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better.” (1 Corinthians 7:38)

West says that many who read this verse think that “if celibacy is so good, then marriage (or sex) must be so bad.” Not the mind of the Church!

“The ’superiority’ of continence (abstinence) to marriage never means, in the authentic tradition of the Church, a disparagement of marriage or a belittling of its essential value.” (TOB 77:6)

In other words, the Church puts such high value on celibacy precisely because she places such a high value on that which celibates sacrifice – marriage. West reminds us that if you sacrifice/give up something you hate (think Lent), it is not a sacrifice. If you give up what you love, that thing has so much more value to you when you sacrifice it.

“Celibacy is exceptional because marriage remains the common calling in this life.” Rather than saying celibacy is “better” than marriage, since that makes a negative statement only speaking of what you’re giving up. So what does a celibate person get that married people don’t?

They participate in the Marriage of the Lamb! Of course they’ve chosen the better part!

One caveat to the “better”: we must remember that for each person, what is “best” or “better” is not objective, but subjective, depending completely on the life to which God calls them. Your chosen vocation, whether to marriage or celibacy for the kingdom, is the best place for you. We must all prayerfully discern what “gift” God has given each one of us.

For example, West tells us that he discerned that he is clearly called to marriage. He can’t get mad at God for not giving him the call to the priesthood just because that’s the “better” part. Many parts, one body.

Discern and live your vocation with joy!

An Affirmation of Sexuality

[to be continued…]

Originally published at Kitchen Stewardship.

Copyright 2012 Katie Kimball

Last week Alex and Olenka graciously had offered to have us over and I dreamt for days of that moment that found me curled up next to my husband in their living room with a giant goblet of red wine, eyes closed as I listened to the other three discussing philosophy and casually referring to huge sections of history that I had never learned.  I smiled, so grateful to be there with a drink in hand and a generous platter of prosciutto before me but wishing that I had read more than those few paragraphs of the Summa that I had found on New Advent when I was in high school so that I could contribute to the conversation.  I ate another prosciutto roll then remembered that I had wanted to ask them questions about their Lenten fast.

I had heard from another friend that Ukrainians traditionally follow a vegan fast during Lent, and anyone who could do that for forty days certainly qualified as a master faster in my book.  What I was not prepared for, though, was the extent of their various fasts.  They confirmed that they, too, would be aiming for a vegan Lenten fast, but later they casually mentioned that they hold a vegan fast twice a week on Wednesdays (traditionally held as the day when Judas betrayed Jesus) and Fridays all year round, don’t eat at all on Sunday until after their liturgy which usually ends at 2 p.m., and have three other fasting periods during the year.  As they talked fondly of their favorite fasting foods, like lentils and fish and vegetables, I tried to wrap my head around it all.  I asked them how they did it, and they stressed the importance of planning for the fast properly.  And then they said that you just get used to it.

I didn’t believe them, but it was time to eat so we stood for grace then sat down for Olenka’s beautiful pasta, and my mind reeled from what had been so quickly and nonchalantly revealed to me.  I smiled at our friends and admired their quiet, heroic virtue in keeping their faithful, routine fasts and that of their friends and family who do the same.   As they exchanged a few words in Ukrainian about the meal, I could see behind them their collection of icons on their mantle and knew that they’d been entrusted with a real treasure—their cultural Catholic traditions.

I’m hungry today, but that’s okay.  I know I’m in good company, and I hope I get used to it.

Copyright 2012 Meg Matenaer

Over the last three years, several writers from Catholic Mom have been guests on my weekly podcast, Among Women. Created in Lent 2009, Among Women grew out of my years of ministry in local churches, and my special regard for women’s ministries.

The Among Women podcast and blog celebrates the beauty and grace of a Catholic woman’s faith and life. It’s faith sharing, teaching, and some good old-fashioned girl talk rolled into one. Each podcast has two segments: “Blessed are They” looks back on inspirational women who are saints, mystics, blesseds, or women from the Bible. The “Among Women” segment focuses on conversations with contemporary women on themes that are important to them.

Among Women has over 125 episodes on a variety of topics.  Its growth and success comes from social media contacts, church bulletin announcements, and, of course, word of mouth. Why not share Among Women as a resource for the women in your life and parish?

Meanwhile, get to know the women behind the bylines here at Catholic Mom, by listening to a few episodes, including three shows with founder of CM, Lisa Hendey.

AW 121: “Each Life is a Masterpiece” with Leticia Velasquez

AW 117: “The Gifts We are to Each Other” with Patti Maguire Armstrong

AW 116: “The Advent of Advent” with Sarah Reinhard

AW 113: “Communing with the Saints” with Lisa Hendey

AW 107: “Making Peace with Your Body” with Kate Wicker

AW 89:  “The Sacred Heart” with Ellen Gable Hrkach

AW 78: “Be An Amazing Catechist” with Lisa Mladinich

AW 62: “Catholic New Media” with Maria Morera Johnson

AW 59: “The Rosary Workout” with Peggy Bowes

AW 56: “The Handbook for Catholic Moms” with Lisa Hendey

AW 50: “Kids and the Bible” with Heidi Hess Saxton

AW 43: “Lisa’s Reversion Story” with Lisa Mladinich

AW 39: “Mom of 10” with Patti Maguire Armstrong

AW 30: “Cause of our Joy” with Leticia Velasquez

AW 27: “The Coping with Breast Cancer” with Lisa Hendey

AW 26: “The Inspiration of Mother Teresa” with Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle

AW 15: “Mommy Blogging and Motherhood” with Kate Wicker

AW 13: “The Blessing of Music” with Susan Bailey

AW 11: “The Snoring Scholar and Great Books” with Sarah Reinhard

AW 10: “All Things Girl” with Cheryl Dickow

AW 6: “The Writing Life” with Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur and Leticia Velazquez

Copyright 2012 Pat Gohn

Wednesday’s Readings

Each year we hear or read the same Lenten readings. They are part of the long tradition of the Church to keep them the same. Yet, we find ourselves ready to accept them in a new way as we begin this Lent.  Our desire to be better and to change some of our patterns in behavior are part of our inner acceptance of this season of renewal and denial of some of our selfishness. The symbol of ashes helps us call to mind that we are created in the love of God and are redeemed in that love. “There is a time for being born and a time for dying.”

Lent calls us to be open to some creative ways of changing ourselves for the good of others and for our own progress in the spiritual life. Joel is the alarm which wakes us up to looking at fasting while realizing the blessings of God: “Rend your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.” From Psalm 51—one of the greatest of psalms—we are helped to pray our repentance and to enter into Lent with a new desire within our hearts.  From Paul we hear another clarion cry:”Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation.”

Matthew’s image of Jesus is that of a great teacher just like Moses was. We learn much about how to observe Lent from passages taken from the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7).  Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting are seen within the bigger picture of the sermon and the context of Matthew’s spirit of teacher-disciple. We do not take the three actions of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting lightly, nor do we display our good works and prayers to be seen by others.  We do Lent quietly and without ostentation.

Meditating and rereading the Sermon on the Mount gets us into the spirit of Lent and helps us to change and to become disciples of Jesus our Master Teacher.  We may wish to meditate on this sermon while reading it attentively and slowly in these opening days of Lent. We will find ourselves enjoying the blessings and graces of God while making our daily activity, ministry, and work more enjoyable. Amen.

Lenten Meditation 2:

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade (1761-1850) had a saying that can motivate our forty days of Lent.  He said, “The essential is the interior.” The liturgical readings are about the essential and go to the heart of each of us who are eager to follow Jesus more closely during this sacred season.  All of today’s liturgical readings go directly to the human heart.  Joel encourages us to return to the Lord with all our heart.  The powerful expression in Joel for doing this is “Theshuvah” from the verb Shuv which means to turn completely around (and thus to face God).  The word is associated with confessing our faults and sins on the Day of Atonement and in our Christian and Catholic religion it means that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the closest we come to the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur.

Jesus in the most Jewish of Gospels, that of Matthew, is encouraging us in his sermon to look deeply into our hearts and to do penance by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

Paul tells us to become ambassadors of God’s reconciliation and God’s love for all of us.  Everything thus starts this Lent from a change of heart that is shown in our love for one another and our sincerity in good works.  Amen.

Video Link

I hope you’ll enjoy the following conversation with the lovely and talented Ginny Kubitz Moyer, and that you’ll make her terrific blog Random Acts of Momness one of your favorite destinations.

Q: Ginny, thank you for your friendship and for being such a wonderful contributor to CatholicMom.com. Please begin by briefly introducing yourself and your family to our readers.

Thank you so much for having me, Lisa!  Like you, I wear lots of hats; I’m a spiritual writer, public high school teacher, and proud mom of two little boys.  They’re named Matthew and Luke, which pretty much guarantees that we get lots of evangelist jokes.  (The best one came from our priest, who asked, “If you have a fifth boy, will you call him Acts?”).  My husband Scott works fulltime in ministry, so I guess you could say we’re a pretty churchy crew.

Q:  Ginny, as we prepare to embark on this year’s Lenten journey, I’m reminded of your wonderful book Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God. Could you briefly describe the book for those who may not yet have read it?

For Mary and Me, I interviewed Catholic women about their feelings towards Mary.  I asked them things like, What role does Mary play in your faith life?  How does she challenge, comfort, inspire you?  Do you ever struggle in understanding Mary?  Are there certain life experiences that have made her feel especially close to you?  I took their stories and reflections and arranged them into various chapters, focusing around certain themes like motherhood, suffering, prayer, community, etc.  It was amazing to see how many different ways women answered these questions.

Q: What prompted you to take the approach of asking other women about their relationships with and perceptions of the Blessed Mother? What most surprised you about their responses?

It actually started as an article I wrote for the Paulist website BustedHalo.com, which is geared towards young adults.  I invited women in their twenties and thirties to share their thoughts on Mary, and I was so excited by the stories that I decided it would be a great book someday.  For Mary and Me, I cast a broader net and included women of all ages, from their twenties to their nineties.  There are women from various cultures and from a variety of professions; there are laywomen and religious, cradle Catholics and converts … a big mix.  I loved talking to them about their experiences.

It was fascinating to discover how many women had experienced Mary as a “bridge” for them to get to God.   Several women talked about how God used to feel distant/scary/remote, for a variety of reasons, but Mary always felt approachable.  Nearly all of these women found that Mary eventually led them into a closer relationship with God.  There’s the old saying “to Jesus through Mary,” and it was fascinating to see how often that story came up in my interviews.

Q: How did the writing of this book and the subsequent births of your two sons color and change your own perspective on Mary?

I learned so much in writing this book.  One woman talked about the death of her husband, and how she really connected to Mary as a widow.  To be honest, the idea of Mary as a widow was something I’d never pondered before!    I was also fascinated to find that some women who grew up in very non-religious families had always instinctively felt close to Mary, while some women who were raised in very Catholic homes felt that they had to work hard to have a relationship with her.  This showed me that it’s really hard to generalize about Mary and her role in women’s lives.

On a personal level, the journey of writing this book really paralleled my journey into motherhood. My first pregnancy (which happened before I started work on the book) was an ectopic, which was devastating.  Then, shortly after I started researching the book, I was overjoyed to become pregnant again.  Sadly, the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.  That second loss really rocked my relationship with God, and with Mary too, for a time.  Eventually, though, those relationships healed and became stronger.  And certain aspects of Mary’s story – particularly her role as Our Lady of Sorrows – really hit home for me.  (I go into more detail in the book.)

And then, as I was finishing up the manuscript, my son Matthew was born.  His arrival gave me an entirely new way to understand Mary’s emotions and experiences.  The Epilogue of the book reflects that; it is something I could never have written before Matthew’s birth.  I “get” Mary’s love for Jesus in a totally personal way now.  And when I see a painting of Madonna and Child, I can so easily picture myself and my boys in that pose.

Q: What advice and encouragement would you offer to women who would like to foster a deeper personal relationship with Mary?

I once jokingly told a friend that if you haven’t found a way to connect with Mary, you just haven’t looked hard enough.  I think the great thing about Mary is that she has so many titles and roles that there is literally something for everyone.   You can connect with her as Our Lady of Guadalupe, as the Queen of Peace, as Our Lady of the Rosary.  You can relate to her as a pregnant woman or as the mother of an adolescent or as the mother who is watching her grown-up child leave home so he can go live the life he was called to live. You can relate to her as a supportive cousin, as a wife, as a daughter.  And you can relate to her as someone who dedicated her life to bringing God into the world – which she did, quite literally.  There are so many possible points of entry … it’s just a matter of learning more about her, and reflecting on her life, and being open to what resonates with you.

Q:  Please tell us about your wonderful blog, Random Acts of Momness. What will readers find at the blog? How has the art of blogging impacted you as a mom and a writer?

Random Acts of Momness has the tagline “thoughts on motherhood and the spiritual life” because those are two things that I love to ponder.  Motherhood is a lens through which I am seeing my faith in a new light, and a lot of the blog posts address that connection.   I also do interviews and guest-posts (I’m currently doing a series called “The Best Gift My Mom Gave Me,” where other writers reflect on exactly that), and reviews of spiritual books.  Sometimes I share quotations and prayers and even images that give this tired mom a shot of inspiration.  (Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of Mary on the blog, too.)

I love blogging because it is a chance to work through questions I have, to sit and grapple with what I really think and to put it out there in the chance that it may resonate with other women.  And it is such an informal medium that it allows for lots of candor and humor, which are two things I love to find in spiritual writing.

Q: Are there any additional thoughts or comments you’d like to share with our readers?

One of the stories in Mary and Me came from a religious sister, who reflected on her fascinating personal connection with the Visitation.  Her story really made me see how important it is that women support and celebrate each other, just as Mary and Elizabeth did.    I think that the Internet has provided a new way for women to support one another on the journey – CatholicMom.com does that so well, as do all the mommy-blogs that offer encouragement and advice and prayers.  I’m grateful to be a part of it all.

Order Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God and support CatholicMom.com with your purchase

How past compromises in consciences and atrocities against the dignity of human sexuality and the sanctity of life led to the current US contraceptive mandate.

Contraception, sterilization and abortion have been part of human history since at least 3000 years before Christ and they have been part of our American history and culture for some time now. The majority of sexually-active Americans use or have used some form of artificial birth control, including sterilization and abortion; sadly that includes many Catholics despite the Church’s strong teachings against the use of contraception, sterilization and abortion. This has contributed to many compromises in consciences and atrocities against the dignity of human sexuality and the sanctity of life. A look into some of these past allowances may explain why we, as a country and as a Church, are losing our religious and conscientious freedoms in this country.

After the revolutionary birth control pill came legalized abortion across all states, opening the floodgates to more government impositions on states’ rights and on personal conscience rights. The wide acceptance of contraception and abortion in the name of “women’s rights” and for “saving lives” ushered in more government involvement for other unethical medical research and “advancements” for “preventive health care” and “public health care” measures.

For example, around the same time as abortion was made legal in the United States, scientists began using cell lines made from the leftover body parts of aborted babies in the production of childhood and adult vaccinations for collective disease prevention. These FDA-approved vaccinations, which still contain residual amounts of human DNA from the original babies, are still used today and children and adolescents are required by state governments to be injected with these if they want to attend public and private schools or be in a licensed daycare facility. Little outrage has been heard from Catholic and other “pro-life” leaders when these state vaccination requirements lack adequate religious and conscientious exemption options and the majority of Americans, including Catholics and “pro-life” Christians, either knowingly or not continue to use these illicit aborted-fetal cell line vaccinations citing politically-correct phrases like “the common good”, “public health” and “saving lives” as their justification. This naturally granted the same validation for the creation and harvesting of human embryos for embryonic stem cell research and human cloning, the next scientific “frontier”.  Along with this, most all state vaccination requirements also include vaccinations for sexually-transmitted diseases, like Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus, often without adequate religious and conscientious exemption options or proper parental notification requirements.

With government mandates related to birth control, health care workers are already required or are heavily pressured to prescribe contraceptives and perform sterilizations and/or abortions, again without much recourse to an exemption if this violates their conscience, and many Catholic institutions already provide health care plans to their employees that, intentionally or not, include coverage for contraceptives. And now, the federal government is mandating all insurance companies to cover contraceptives at no cost and without allowing proper exemption options to “promote healthy communities and serve the common good” and to ensure that “women can have access to these important preventive health services”.

There has been much division over support of the HHS contraceptive mandate but thankfully many Americans and leaders and members of our Church are responding and fighting back. Most Americans and most Catholics seem to oppose the lack of an adequate religious exemption with this mandate yet many Americans, including Catholics, seem to be in favor of requiring insurance companies to cover contraceptives at no cost. While this mandate has caused a firestorm across the nation and in the Church, the Affordable Care Act sought to include these “essential benefits for women” from the get go and we, Americans and Catholics, knew full well, what we were getting with the election of Obama and his universal health care plans. Yet Obama captured more than half of the Catholic vote in 2008 and those who support the Affordable Care Act praise and acknowledge the pivotal role Catholics played in the success of its passage.

Given this and remembering what has been allowed in the past, should we really be all that shocked with what is going on now? More importantly, where will we go from here? For now, contraceptives will only be covered by insurance companies at no cost. This country already has a history in participating in eugenic programs, such as compulsory surgical sterilization of persons deemed to be carriers of presumed defective genetic traits. What will happen when “at risk” adolescents and adults are required to use contraceptives, be sterilized, or have abortions to “save lives” and protect the “public health”?

One good thing about the HHS contraceptive mandate is that it has quickly turned a much-needed spotlight on how close we are to losing all our religious and conscientious liberties. Like those who balked at the thought of abortion becoming legal and did nothing until it was too late, many would rather remain drowsing under their bed sheets than wake up and see the mess that’s mounted up around us or acknowledge this very real threat. The time for sleeping is past. It is time to wake up, get out of bed and get to work restoring our country, our Church and our humanity.

“On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.” – Joseph Warren

Copyright 2012 Erika Higgins

It is Mom’s wake, here in my reverie. And it is three years on the journey since that day.  It was wintry. It was brutal and hostile. Sleeting and frigid. But you know this.

When you lose one you love, one who walked with you on life’s journey longest and loved you most, loved you unconditionally…well, you know.

You know the day suits the mood, the very core of the reason we are here. You know it is as if those we love can only be mourned on the most foul and wretched of days charted within our climes. You know this.

And so I remember. Perhaps the best place to begin is a lifetime ago with the richness, the fullness, the oftentimes emptiness of  need, a lifetime ago and just off the boat. But, the  plentitude of happiness, found.    Of a hard early life in lower west side tenements; of a military base during The War; of five children, children-in-law, grandchildren and great children.

Pinned to the coffin: many memories. Some, fresh. Others, faded.  A tangible trail of symbols.  A handful, represent a life so long passed that reaching back to their stories seems near to impossible. All, house stories that  are limitless.

And the pictures. The books filling the tables; the collages lining the perimeter of the room.  Standing like sentinels, guarding, yet kimdly spilling the story of a life well lived and well loved. Of grace filled days.  Pictures that now conjure memories, with the speed, the rush of a car moving down the highway. Trees, telephone wires, houses ablur.

And in these memory-laden tomes, there are Christmas mornings. There are Adirondack lakeside cabins. There are birthday boys and birthday girls, party hats askew. There are whipped confections, candles poking through, moments away from toddler manhandling. There is Dad, wielding an enormous camera contraption, flash bulbs huge and blinding. There is Mom, good naturedly corralling little people for birthday fun.

In another memory book, there is laughter and there are lingering summer suppers in our postage stamp sized Queens yard. Small dimensions, big love. Citronella candles burn to stubs as sun has dipped below horizon, oh, hours ago. Bright moonlight fills the sky and hushed, familiar voices mingle. Some in staccato laughs; some in serious debate; all in good nature, throughout. Pitchers, by now empty of libations. Platters once brimming full with grilled tidbits, shared on our newly-Dad-constructed patio, under spreading maple. Lawn chairs now haphazardly scattered,  having fit friends into conversations. Children darting, squealing and firefly catching. Evening, winding down.

We thought these days would always be.

And then, in yet another, there are those shots from way back. Those are yellowed and curled and indistinct, yet clear as right now. Black and white and grey. Unlabelled and undated, on a pier somewhere in California.

Dad in Army issue, looking younger than I have ever known him. Ever. Looking determined, and dare I say, fierce. And yet, posing for this very shot, expectant and cautious. A soft heart and a bright mind. But as a youth and shipping out again, weary.

Mom, even younger. Looking very Maureen O’Hara, in a lower-west-side-daughter-of-Irish-immigrants-way that only first generation gals can muster, without even knowing. Until perhaps a lifetime later, when scrapbooks are perused and expressions examined.

As if she just finished the talk. The “You-will-come-home-and-we-will-have-a-life” talk.  And as you know by now, he did. And they did.  And it was some life.

And you can almost hear, if you time tunnel back into this moment and if you really listen, the mournful strains of “Sentimental Journey,” plucked out by a makeshift band at battleship’s starboard side. A haunting ballad. But then, is there one more appropriate? Those on board and on dock, preparing to ship out. into the blue Pacific. For some, it is the last they will see of their families, their country. Others will come back, spared. But changed. The Greatest Generation, indeed.

Yes, hundreds of lives touched, held within these pages, here on a table in this room, where we celebrate this one life and where we celebrate all these lives. Some, touched in a big way, walking side by side on life’s journey. Some touched fleetingly.   All important.

And now, my children have no earthly grandparents; all of them are “our special saints,” my youngest states. When one of my children becomes wistful, wishing Grandpa “could be here with us,” as when we toured the World War II Memorial in DC, the other says, “He IS here with us.”

We take a picture of our boys sitting side by side on the Memorial ridges engraved “Leyte Gulf” and “Manila.”  For this is where their grandfather was two generations ago, before most of the people respectfully and wistfully wandering the Memorial, were even born. Without a doubt, they know, my boys truly know, that they will meet again in Heaven and share Eternity.

During the prayer service on the final night of Mom’s wake, my oldest, then eight, wished to share a memory with all the others. Among all those story fragments swirling around the room spun by friends, neighbors and family, he felt comfortable that one of many memories of his Nanny was worthy of being shared. That the telling of it would not diminish it, but allow it to grow stronger.  He talked of silliness of a song, and was I proud when he did, that so many times over the years, his Nan sung off key. She bore the brunt of his hysterics to this oft-requested melody. Being a good sport about it, welcoming it.

And there were so many, many more. A vigil of remembrance. And isn’t that what a wake should be?

So it is, we find, that at our lowest and most broken, amid the laughter and the sadness, we are led to  realize: we all will emerge. Eventually. Our brokenness made whole by our Lord’s beautiful gifts of grace and hope. Enveloped within our Catholic doctrine of Eternal Life, we embrace an end which is only the beginning.

As my youngest offhandedly commented recently while perusing our family scrapbooks, in a way that only the young possess, noting  the many faces, smiling, solemn, youthful, elderly, who have  gone to their Eternal Reward, “We’ll meet them all again. All the people we love now, and will love but haven’t even met yet, when we each  get there.”

Copyright 2012 Christine Capolino 

Mr. Horton lived in the subway tunnels of NYC where he found his solace and peace.  He had a reputation of being a gentle kind man, a prolific artist, and loved music.  He shared his story with a lady who eventually helped him write a book, “Pitch Black.”  In it he shared what he learned living in the tunnels, where he found his creativity and some rules of thumb that we can all take a lesson from, including:
Always carry a light.
Anything you need can be found in the garbage.
Always have more than one spot.
And, always have a way out that is different from the way in.
The Church teaches and I believe that God is in everyone; He was truly in Anthony as well.  Yes, he had problems, don’t we all in one degree or another.  But in these few rules of thumb in his book, I see God’s presence and love in this man’s life.

God is truly in all of us, so during Lent many of us make great plans to be closer to Him.  In the process, we  test the body’s will power, decision making, and discipline of time management.  All in all, we want to be different, more of something and less of something else.  So we make plans each Lenten season reading books and finding inspiration for our journey.  Making plans for myself, I’ve been inspired by Mr. Horton and his rules of thumb:

- ”Always carry a light.” Carrying the light of Christ with me through the tunnels of life, finding the good in everyone and every situation that come into my path.  I’m not the nicest person at times and this needs to change.

-”Anything you need can be found in the garbage”.  Knowing that there are adversities everywhere, that I do make mistakes, but through Christ’s love for me I can make a garbage moment or attitude better through prayer and faith in Him; I’ll make that my mission of change.

-”Always have more than one spot.”  There are more places to be than just in the present, remembering where we have come from and knowing how we got here, being humbled by the hard lessons of life, can continue to change our hearts and minds.  The pain of a situation is the strengthening of the character for the future.  The martyrs gave us that lesson through the ages. I’m not just in the here and now, I’m a compilation of where I have been and where I am headed.  We are not promised tomorrow, nor a rose garden, but we are promised the hope of something far better before us.  Christ is our hope, and I must keep my eyes on Him in whatever or where ever I am.

-”And, always have a way out that is different from the way in.”  At the end of this season of Lent, will I have a different outlook than I did when I entered?  Will I come out a better person, a changed person?  That is my goal, just like the paralyzed man who wanted to see Jesus so bad that his friends made a hole in the roof for him to be lowered.  Through his faith and determination, he was cured and instead of leaving the same way he came in, he went out the front door, forever changed.

Changed forever, ending up much different, closer to God, a better person, than when I came into Lent.

Copyright 2012 Ebeth Weidner

I’ve got a huge list of someday items for Lent.  Why someday?  Because they just don’t work in my current life.  My children are young (4 and 1) and many activities are either over their heads or over their tolerance level.   When I read Bring Lent to Life by Kathleen M Basi, however, I was stoked to find activities that my 4 year old would get!

To read the rest of my thoughts about this great resource, hop on over to CMO!

Copyright 2012 Jen Steed

It was for a baptism, meeting a future sister-in-law and seeing my mom and my dad who suffers from Alzheimer’s and cannot say all the things he thinks or know anymore all the things he once knew with startling ease.

We ate, we talked, we went to mass. We hugged, we did ordinary things like shopping for diet coke and jeans and making pot roast and folding laundry. We also tried to hang onto moments, to slow time. To freeze the frame when the baby smiled, to remember the words my father could get out and cram every moment with all the stories and thoughts and feelings that too infrequent visits allow to pile up.

It was a joyful luminous glorious sorrowful ordinary time.

At mass, I watched as my father followed my mother to receive. He bowed his head and took the Eucharist on the tongue. He then tried to follow his wife but the traffic to the cup was confusing and for a moment, he looked lost. Then my uncle steadied him by putting his hand on my dad’s shoulder and he received the precious blood. I breathed out.

Meanwhile, my mother realized Dad was not behind her. She was about to look about when my brother gave her a reassuring touch of the shoulder to show all was well. My dad was returning.

As a Godparent, I (along with the Godfather)was in the second pew with my sister and her husband and their newly baptized daughter. It was an unfamiliar church for my Dad, but he turned and he stopped. He looked at my face. Out of the packed pews and confusion, he pointed and nodded his head with a slight smile. “I know you.” the smile said.

In that moment, I flashed back to the first year I really knew how to swim. I’d had a tracheonmy for the first 8 years of my life and so at nine, swimming underwater was a wondrous new thing for me. I was at the YMCA pretending to be a dolphin or a seal or a mermaid. A man came swimming towards me and his face flowered into a smile. It was my dad. I had not recognized him, being lost in the wonder of being surrounded on all sides by water. When I did, I remember smiling back at him underwater in sudden recognition and then zooming upwards for a breath. Dad had been in the fog of his disease, but for a moment, saw me clearly. I was a mess for the rest of mass.

I was so grateful to see that moment, and all the moments before, the kindness of an Uncle, the comfort of a brother, the strength of a parish bursting with song and with children, the solid faith of my niece’s family, the whole of it, all of it, that it was hard not to have my heart both burst with joy and weep.

Saying those vows, receiving, and being present, anticipating a wedding feast in July, it felt a bit like heaven , in that all of time collapsed in that full moment. Yes my dad is dying, but he is still with us. Yes I live far from a lot of the people I love, they are still with us, in this family, this Universal Church.

It was hard not to want to love endlessly in that moment, despite all the known and hidden crosses in that Parish, in my own, in our nation, in the whole world and the whole history of this fallen, broken confused world. For an instant, I understood how grace breaks through the fog of our hearts and even when we are lost in our own worlds, calls us to really see each other, and come out of the fake world where we cannot last long and into the real place where we can breathe easy.

On that day, we will be walking, and we will see Christ’s face and He will smile at us. In that moment, when we recognize Him, our face will say, “I know you.” too.

Copyright 2012 Sherry Antonetti

I caught wind of the new Total Consecration app thanks to Marc Barnes at the Bad Catholic blog. (And if you aren’t already reading Bad Catholic, well, what are you waiting for?)

I’ve gone through Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary before, but it was before I had a device with apps. I used a combination of the free audio over at New Evangelizers and the recommended book.

As with most of these big faith things, I flopped and flailed and floobered.

That doesn’t stop me from trying again, though (and it shouldn’t stop you, either!).

This app is already worth the 99-cents I’ve paid for it. Though there are websites that have all this information available (with audio! for free!), those websites don’t have reminders that will pop up and harass me interrupt my blog-reading remind me.

The app’s easy to use and it has a clean, intuitive design. There’s a subtle little button in the corner with suggested “best days to start” and there’s a clearly marked “change start date” button for those of us who open it quite a few times before committing.

I did notice, to my chagrin, that I can’t schedule it to start reminding me ahead of time. Maybe the developer will think of that and update it. If not, then I will have to rely on the wonders of my calendar and to-do app working together in the future.

The prayers are all included on the appropriate days, along with any special instructions you need.

Bottom line: totally worth your investment, especially if it means you’ll actually complete your Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary!

Have you completed Total Consecration before? When…and have you renewed it?

Copyright 2012 Sarah Reinhard

-          Catholic Coloring Books – Children love coloring books and catholic ones are very educational. Most Catholic coloring books tell the beautiful story of Jesus Christ and focus on the last few days of his life. By coloring with your children you can talk about Jesus and his love for us. Not to mention coloring is such fun activity.

-          Children’s Bible Stories – Nothing beats a good Children’s Bible at telling the story of the passion of Jesus Christ at the level children can understand. The passion of Christ can easily come off to children as confusing, odd, and irrelevant. The writers of Children’s Bibles know exactly how to frame the passion of Christ so that little ones understand it on their level. Reading it to your children can lead to great discussion about a basic understanding of the meaning and importance of Lent.

-          Lent crafts – I know what you’re thinking, “Lenten crafts? What on earth are you talking about?” Think about making a great cross out of simple items like popsicle sticks or palm leaves from Palm Sunday. These crafts are not only fun to make but they are also a great time to talk about Jesus and what he accomplished with the Cross. Making a cross is just one of many great craft ideas for the time of Lent that also allow you to talk about the faith with your children. Many Children’s Easter gifts are filled with fun activities you can do with your little ones.

These are just a few fun ideas to do with your child during Lent. Lent is an important time for everyone in your family so don’t be afraid to incorporate even the littlest ones. Have a great time this Lent with your family. What are some things you do with your family during Lent?

Copyright 2012 Kathleen Wellman

That first night of praying with Mary’s Prayer Warriors on this on-line Rosary, I pulled up the group page to find a new post listing the times to pray with the link.  It was so well organized by Diana Gatsche with instructions and time links.  It amazed me to see that many would be praying with Catholics from Ireland, South Africa, Uganda, Philippines, Singapore, Mumbai, India, British Columbia, New South Wales, Tasmania as well as all the time slots listed for the United States.  For me, in California, the time was 7:00 PM.  Going on that “chat” link for the first time that night, I felt like a school kid as those there to pray welcomed me.  I was the new kid on the block and waited for Diana Gatsche to give the go ahead to pray the Rosary.  The link she provided was www.comepraytherosary.org.  At that point, we all clicked on the link and followed the prompts to pray with others around the world!  So amazing!

It turns out that the Rosary link was creatively established by Fr. Dave Heney of St. Paschal Baylon.  In 2006, Fr. Dave hosted a new pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Catholics from Southern California.  The Rosary link that was his holy project shows actual film footage of many of the churches and holy sites, as well as photographs and guest options for submitting prayer intentions.  The Rosary link has the voice of  Fr. Dave Heney leading, with the voices of members of his parishioners reciting.  There is a number posted below, in the middle of the screen, to indicate how many people are praying with you at the same time.  One truly feels like they are praying with a large group of people and with those being part of Mary’s Prayer Warriors, you virtually are.

With this new group, during Lent, I was praying the Rosary on-line almost every night.  I remember thinking, “Well this is great for Lent this works!”  Occasionally, we had the honor of a Deacon or Priest on-line to prayer with us as well.  At that time, last year, I had actually thought that the group was just praying the Rosary just for the Season of Lent.  It was refreshing to pray with others reflecting on their prayer requests, as well as my  own that I had for my family.  It was truly connecting with others through prayer during this holy season and the experience was exceptional.

As you can guess, the Season of Lent passed, but it turns out that Mary’s Prayer Warriors is for all-year round!  On the group page, I find many families or individuals, post their personal prayer requests.  There are always so many requests for those that are ill, new born babies, family difficulties, etc..  Many of the group members pray for each other from what is posted that day, or just link on-line to pray the Rosary at the regular time.  There is always someone on-line each night from the group to pray the Rosary with.

It personally has been a grace being part of this prayer group.  With the Mary’s Prayer Warriors I have found we are living our faith in a peaceful sacramental manner by praying together.  I respect and pray for those I know through this group on a regular basis.  It is truly connecting through prayer with others and with our Mother of the Rosary.  You don’t need to me a member of Mary’s Prayer Warriors to pray this wonderful link.  Please just link www.comepraytherosary.org. any time of the day or night to pray with others.  You will find the graces!  Blessings!

Leslie Lenko is part of Team Adoration for a 24 Hour Perpetual Adoration Chapel.  She is also an avid fundraiser/event consultant for parish and Catholic organizations.  Leslie has been a Vocations Promoter for six-years coordinating between the L.A. Vocations Office and her local parish.  She has in the past participated and coordinated the “Adopt A Seminarian Program” through her parish.  She resides in Southern California with her family.

Copyright 2012 Leslie Lenko

Most Gen X and Gen Y Catholics only know one form of the Mass, but two forms are in use today: the Pauline (after Pope Paul VI) Usage or Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo or “Vatican Two Mass”) and the Johannine (after Blessed Pope John XXIII) Usage or Extraordinary Form (Usus antiquior, ”Old Mass” or “Tridentine Mass”).

When I first became Catholic in the year 2000, it was hard to find a Tridentine Mass.  In fact, you could be suspected of heresy if you cared too much about locating one.  Now, the pendulum is swinging.

The Pope’s Motu Proprio, called Summorum Pontificum, issued in July 2007, and the subsequent 2011 Instruction on its proper implementation promote both Masses.

The 2011 Instruction says that the Motu Propio has the aim of:

a. offering to all the faithful the Roman Liturgy in the Usus Antiquior, considered as a precious treasure to be preserved;

b. effectively guaranteeing and ensuring the use of the forma extraordinaria for all who ask for it, given that the use of the 1962 Roman Liturgy is a faculty generously granted for the good of the faithful and therefore is to be interpreted in a sense favourable to the faithful who are its principal addressees;

c. promoting reconciliation at the heart of the Church.

While the Pope’s efforts are often reported, and quickly dismissed, as an effort to prevent a schism among groups such as the Society of Saint Pius X, I think that it’s really more than that.  Some of the Holy Father’s insights can be found in this letter that accompanied the Motu Propio.

I spoke with religious communities that are striving for renewal, in part by restoring the use of the extraordinary form of the Mass.  The Holy See entrusted the Monks of Norcia in San Benedetto, Italy, the birthplace of St. Benedict, with the special apostolate of celebrating the Eucharist in both forms.  Their Novice Master, Fr. Benedict Nivakoff, referred to the first aim of the Motu Propio when he said, “Well, monks are those who care for the treasures of the Church.  So it seemed most fitting.”

The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, an order in Chicago, Illinois, celebrated both Masses before the Motu Propio.  Their founder, Fr. Frank Phillips, said,  “Years ago in the initial formation of our community, I happened to meet ‘Cardinal’ Ratzinger and briefly spoke to him about our charism and he said – not exact words – ‘finally a community that does both.’”   This order desires to “Restore the Sacred” and seeks to nurture a continuing renewal of the Christian life as fed by the liturgy.

I visited the Canonry of St. Leopold in Long Island, New York to talk to them about these developments.  They are a new foundation of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, a very old order in Europe.  Their Prior, Fr. Daniel Nash, said, “We give everyone a little bit of everything. We want to open the treasury of the Church, so people get everything that is theirs….not just what has been on the common market for the past 40 years.”  Fr. Elias Carr said that it should be “normal” for both Masses to be available, and believes that when the Pope’s words are really heard, this is the direction we’re being led in.

Yet, after all of the interviews I did to understand this new phenomenon, I noticed some resistance.  Some religious orders view this shift as a calling for some to embrace, and not others.  Some Catholic media people I’ve spoken with view too much emphasis on liturgy as misguided.  Liturgical renewal, they say, won’t solve all of the problems in the Church, so the emphasis doesn’t quite make sense to them.

When you speak to a priest, it becomes clear why so much energy is spent on liturgical issues.  Fr. Daniel said, “Well, what does it mean to be a priest?  To help people, to serve God?  That’s vague.  It’s to say Mass – to celebrate the liturgy.”  The liturgy does have a certain centrality in the Catholic faith.  What makes people convert to Catholicism anyway?  It’s for the sacraments, for communion…

Outlets like New Liturgical Movement, founded in August 2005, focus exclusively on liturgical issues because it is such a dear topic to some Catholics.  Founder and editor, Shawn Tribe, said the website was founded “with the inspiration of Pope Benedict’s pontificate and the concept he helped to popularize: what we need today is a new ‘liturgical movement’…”

Truth be told, I’ve only been to one Tridentine Mass in my life.  They are hard to find.  Even so, it’s an option and freedom that I appreciate having.  For me, faith is about communing with God, and frankly, some of the drumming and guitar strumming at modern, suburban Masses doesn’t help me do that.  If I ever reach an impasse where I can’t escape the contemporary music, I could go Tridentine!

Copyright 2012 Amy Bonaccorso

She is holding a butterfly but not with clenched hands or fists. She is lifting her open hands to the heavens not trying to hide it from others. She has made the decision, she has held her hands up and her eyes are cast upon the heavens. She stands still waiting for it to fly.

We like the faceless Willow Tree figurine have so many butterflies in our lives that need to be set free. We clinch our fists and hold on so tightly that no one will know what we hide within. We cast our eyes to the ground in sorrow, regret or remorse thinking not of the freedom of the future but only of the scars of the past. We cannot be still because what we hold so tightly if looked upon will paralyze us. So we move about here and there completing tasks, staying busy, we don’t want to think about what’s in our hands. We don’t want to open our hands because then we must face the reality of our world. We don’t want to open our hands to the heavens because we fear God does not have the power to set it free from our hands. But Oh, if only God could…

If God could help us to unclench our hands and our hearts.

If God could only take away the pain, the memory, the anguish, the scars.

If God could give us the strength to know without a doubt if we revealed this He would help us set it free

If God could guarantee it would be painless and quick we would stand there cast our eyes upon him and release it.

This is faith; opening our hands, our hearts and becoming vulnerable to God, believing that although the pain will come that God will give us the strength to get through it, knowing that we are not alone but have someone to hold us up so we can hold our hands to the heavens and set that burdensome butterfly free.

If you do not open your hands, if you do not face the scars, if you do not still yourself, if you do not cast your eyes upon the heavens then all you will find is the cold hard ground beneath your feet, the cramped muscles of your fingers and an unsurpassable sadness. Let it go. Tell a loved one, talk to a counselor, go to someone you trust and let it go. Give yourself permission to release it. Trust that God will give you the people to help you through it believe that God will not abandon you and have faith that a weight will be lifted from your soul if only you let it go.

Copyright 2012 Lori Hadorn-Disselkamp

Sunday’s Readings

When was the last time you heard a sermon or homily about sin?  The topic is rarely treated and yet the Scriptures present it quite often. Today’s Scriptures are addressing the issue of sin. The Scriptures give us the living voice of Jesus and of the patriarchs and prophets.  They are the divine U-Tube for attracting our attention and making us think and do something.  We are to begin anew and this can start as the Psalm says by singing a new song.  God is doing something within us when we deal with the confrontation of our sins.

Some are haunted by the sins and mistakes of the past. The new song is that through spiritual guidance and the sacrament of reconciliation these sins are forgiven and there is no need to turn back to them or remember them out of fear of punishment. The chapter of that book of our life is written and is closed.  We are to realize that God wants us to do new things with our lives and to let the past go.  That part of our story in our personal book is closed; we move on with a new song to the Lord.

Our psalm today is similar to a sung act of contrition. When we are finished with the singing of the psalm we move on to the new chapters in our book of life with God and Jesus.

In the healing of the paralytic we see that Jesus has the power not only to heal the man of his affliction but also to forgive sins.  His healing is a confirmation that Jesus does forgive sins and saves us from sinning again if we focus on his presence in our lives at the present moment.

The beautiful passage from St. Paul shows us Jesus always singing a new song that begins with YES and ends with Yes.  There is neither a “no” a “maybe” in his song. God’s word is always a Yes in Jesus. Conversion and repentance are a Yes that helps us prepare for the season of Lent.  We realize that Jesus learned how to say YES to the Father from his earliest years and carries it through the rest of his life. The last book of the New Testament encases that YES in Jesus’ being the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of a new song. His mother’s first mention in the Scriptures is  her YES to the Lord in the Annunciation.( Luke 1: 38). No wonder Jesus learned how to say YES at an early age and continued to sing it in the new song of his life.  We can come to new life this Lent and learn how to sing the new song of YES to God.  Amen.

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