George Washington and the Popes: Faith and Morality are Indispensible for Prosperity

George Washington understood the importance of building a society formed in sound moral virtue:

“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”

Yet, these precious foundations of society are being compromised and the structures that give rise to such values are themselves under grave scrutiny and dismissal. Who would ever think that a sitting president and administration would challenge the explicit intention of the First Amendment in defense of religious liberty? To undermine the freedom to express those values essential to society’s wellbeing is to invite decay.

Consider a few statistics of life in the U.S.: forty-nine percent of marriages end in divorce; fifty-five million children have been aborted; nearly half of all children are born out of wedlock; there is a steady increase in drug abuse and suicides; acts of violence have increased in our homes and schools; child abuse cases are on the rise; sexual crimes and murder rates are escalating in many areas; and many of the aged are abandoned. These are but a few representations of a society in decay, not on the rise.

Nearly thirty-one years ago, Pope John Paul II, who had personally experienced the demoralizing effects of governments and policies that undermine the core values of society and its people, offered this prophetic call to action:

“At a moment of history in which the family is the object of numerous forces that seek to destroy it or in some way to deform it, and aware that the well-being of society and her own good are intimately tied to the good of the family, the Church perceives in a more urgent and compelling way her mission of proclaiming to all people the plan of God for marriage and the family, ensuring their full vitality and

human and Christian development, and thus contributing to the renewal of society and of the People of God.” (Familiaris Consortio, #3)

That is our task, brothers and sisters. Take courage! By God’s grace we can build families and communities of faith and virtue, and with our lives give witness to what a holy society looks like.

Pray for us, Blessed John Paul II.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet,
President, Human Life International

This is Part II of a two-part article “George Washington and the Popes: Faith and Morality are Indispensable for Prosperity” by Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, President of Human Life International.

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
May 6, 2012

Love Unlimited – 6th Sunday of Easter
Some people seem to think that the Catholic Church is just another multi-national corporation, Catholicism, Inc., with the Pope as CEO. Obviously, this view is a bit skewed, but is not totally off-base. The Church is in fact an international organization. That’s actually one of the meanings of the word “Catholic”– this church is no small sect limited to a particular ethnic enclave. Rather, it is “universal,” intended to reach and include people from all nations.

That’s an important message of this Sunday’s first reading. Jesus mission was first and foremost to the children of Israel. But notice that he never restricted his ministry to Jews alone. In fact the person he pointed out as having more faith than just about anyone else he’d met was not a Jew, but a Roman, the centurion whose servant he healed.
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Sixth Sunday of Easter: The Elixir of Love
Back in the Middle Ages there was an alchemist who had achieved notable fame for his intellectual prowess.For want of a better name, we’ll call him Justin of Bieberland.Now, usually when we think of alchemy, we focus on the attempts of alchemists to create gold, but actually the alchemists attempted much more than that.They were really the first inorganic chemists.And Justin was one of the best.He understood the properties of mercury, how to best transform various elements into energy and so forth.The problem was that Justin was so intelligent that people were afraid of him.He was too smart for them.So people avoided him.Especially, female people.Now Justin really wanted to have a wife and family, but how could he convince a fair lass to marry him?
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Sunday Homily – 6th Easter
Gospel Summary

This gospel passage is filled with beautiful statements about the ever popular subject of love. Jesus tells us that the Father loves him, and that he in turn loves us, and that we should love one another. Perhaps we have heard these sentiments expressed so often that we no longer realize how profound and dramatic they really are.

When Jesus says that the Father has loved him, he is correcting a very common concept of God. Many people at that time (and perhaps ever since) pictured God as someone very transcendent and therefore very distant from them. He was surely all-powerful but, like most powerful ones, he seemed to be cruel as well. Is God not in some way responsible for famine and natural disasters? Does he not at least permit the death of young parents and innocent children?
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Why I am Catholic, and Think You Should be too
1. I am Catholic because I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the promised one of God. He said that He would build a church (Matthew 16:18). The ONLY church that can trace itself historically to the time of Jesus is the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, it must be His.

2. I am Catholic because the Bible is a Catholic book. Let me ask you some questions.

a. Do you believe that the Bible is 100% inspired by The Holy Spirit?
(2Timothy 2:16). We do.
b. Do you believe that you need to have the Holy Spirit to interpret the
Bible? (2Peter 1:20, 21) We do.
c. Do you believe that you need the Holy Spirit to recognize which
books in the Bible actually belong in the Bible? We do.
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Effects of the Annunciation
Mary’s “yes” at the Annunciation achieves the central truths of the Incarnation, as it is here God becomes flesh and thus redeems the fallen children of Adam. Sections §457-60 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] provides four main consequences of Our Lady’s fiat.

The first is the reasoning from the forfeited goodness brought about by our disobedience: “The Word became flesh for us ‘in order to save us by reconciling us with God’”(1 Jn 4:10), who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:14); “the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world,” and he was revealed to take away sins. Then, quoting Gregory of Nyssa: “Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us” (§457).
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The Always Witty Little Flower
I have written in these pages before how years ago I wrestled with my deep desire to become a Trappist; how it nagged at my heart for years; and how I eventually applied to Gethsemani Abbey and went on long retreats where I did little more than bounce off the walls and think about girls.

I never felt at home there, never felt at peace. Still, when I was away from there, back home at my job, that place was all I thought about. But every time I went there, awful.
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Why are there not more miracles in our day as in Biblical times?
As a pastor I get asked every now and then, “Why are there not more miracles in our day, like there were in the Bible?” I suppose there are two answers we could explore.

One of the answers must surely be that we do not really expect miracles.

Another answer is that when they do happen we often dismiss them by rationalizing them, or chalking them up to coincidence or to some unknown reason that scientists will surely be able to explain some day.
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Mary Queen of Heaven- the Bible Tells Me So
The Queen of Heaven was a goddess in pagan times, but when we call Mary the Queen of Heaven it has nothing to do with pagan worship. We don’t worship Mary. Check out this post to correct that mis understanding.

Instead Mary as the Queen of Heaven is tied in with the Old Testament concept of the royal household. Because the King had many wives it was impossible for one to be Queen. Therefore the King’s mother served in the role. The Queen Mother sat on a throne at the King’s right hand and helped rule the kingdom. Access to the King would often be through the Queen Mother and she would ask favors from the King for those who asked her. You can see an example of this in I Kings 2: 17-25 where Solomon is on the throne next to his mother Bathsheba.
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New Wine, New Eve – Knowing Mary Through the Bible
To run out of refreshments at a party or to not have enough hamburgers for a summer cookout might be an embarrassing moment for a modern-day host. However, to run short of wine at an ancient Jewish wedding feast would represent a social catastrophe that would severely damage a family’s reputation for years.

According to customs of the time, a first-century Jewish wedding would not have been a private family celebration, but a public event recognizing the union of the bride and groom as well as the joining of the two families. The celebration typically took place in the groom’s own home, which was made open to guests for several days and thus open to public
scrutiny.
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The Hypostatic Union
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the founder and object of the Catholic Church. He is both true God and true man. Because he is God, we worship him as our Creator and Redeemer; because he is also man, he is our brother and like us in all things, sin alone excepted. In Catholic theology, the union of the divine nature and the human nature is explained as taking place in the Person of Jesus, who is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God. This is known as the “Hypostatic Union.” The word, hypostatis, is a Greek word which means “person.”

The Hypostatic Union had a profound effect on Jesus’ human nature. Jesus Christ is a true man, but, because he is also God, he is no ordinary man. It is important to remember that Jesus is not a human person like us; he is a divine Person.
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Six Practical Ideas for Integrating our Catholic Faith with Work
If you think about it, most of us will likely spend the majority of our adult (awake) lives in the workplace. A typical eight hour work day accounts for 1/3rd of the total day, with the other 2/3rds devoted to sleeping, family, friends, faith, etc. In the practice of our faith, do we consider the workplace as an opportunity to be open about our Catholic beliefs or do we ignore this vital time and only think about being Catholic the other 16 hours a day?

I suspect many of us will agree that the workplace today is perceived as a challenging environment to be open about our Christian beliefs. The specter of the Church’s battle with this Administration over the HHS Mandate looms over every Catholic employer. Political correctness and rigid company policies have led many of us to
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The poet who saved a saint’s priceless letters
It was March 1936. A series of anti-clerical riots swept through Toledo. Churches were burned and priests and monks were attacked in the streets. During these disturbances several Carmelite monks, disguised in lay clothes, sought shelter in the home of the South African poet, Roy Campbell, who had moved to the city with his wife, Mary, and their two young daughters in the previous year. Four months later, on July 21, republican forces advanced on the city. Under cover of darkness, the Carmelite monks once again called on the Campbells. This time, however, they were not seeking refuge for themselves but for their priceless archives, which included the personal papers of St John of the Cross. Campbell agreed to take possession of these precious archives and that night a heavy trunk of ancient documents was delivered secretly from the Carmelite library to the hallway of the Campbells’ house.
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Worshiping with Our Whole Bodies
One of the most beautiful things about Catholic worship, particularly when it’s done well, is that it’s a full-body experience. We smell the incense, we sing Psalms and hymns (and hear these being sung), we listen to the Scriptures and the homily, we see the Sacrifice of the Mass (and the priest’s liturgical gestures are loaded with meaning), we kneel, sit, stand, we taste the Blessed Sacrament, we embrace at the sign of peace. The Liturgy reflects the Catholic view of the body, and of matter, and our deep-seated belief that Creation should give glory to God. It’s also consistent with the worship of the Old Testament, of the early Christians, and of the apparent Heavenly Liturgy described in the Book of Revelation.
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Our Allotted Time is the Passing of a Shadow: The Modernist Fallacy
Diverse commentators, pundits, and cultural critics seem to relish pointing out that Western societies and cultures, including the American, are rapidly sloughing off the remaining trammels and traces of their Christian heritage. These people proclaim that we are living in a “post-Christian” age, a term that fits the post-modern, post-colonial, post-structuralist mould. While Friedrich Nietzsche, they say, killed God, Michel Foucault killed man, so humanity is left facing the void. Life has no meaning and never did. We are carbon-based bipeds whose dioxide emissions are making the planet uninhabitable for all life forms with the possible exception of bacteria. People are the real blight. There is no objective, perennial truth, apart from nihilism. Such a conclusion, according to best-selling British atheist writers, is the logical result of wealth, intelligence, education, technology, liberal democracy, and common sense, the culmination of modernity.
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Holy Cow, My Mother Was Right
About the following, for starters:

Reading is what people do, like breathing or blinking.Read to yourself, read out loud to your kids (any age), read with your spouse at night.Every time you turn off the TV, you’ve won back a little bit of your life.

Not everything that’s good is explicitly Catholic, and not everything that calls itselfCatholic is good.True for art, music, ideas, lives.

But sooner or later, you have to decide which side you’re on.I think she said this to me when she saw the trashy cover of a CD I was listening to as a teenager.
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Children’s Picture Books Perfect for a Catholic Family Bookshelf
Listers, One of the many essential tools to teaching our children about the glory and depth of our faith is the picture book. Children often have short attention spans, and their comprehension skills are still not as developed and refined as adults; however, that should not prevent us from sharing with them the truth, the glory, and the goodness of our Catholic tradition. The picture book is often an excellent tool to use to help remedy this difficult hurdle. When you really consider what makes good children’s literature you will notice a common thread among all the greats. Good children’s literature must be an intricate blend between the following: 1) a thoughtfully laid-out plot using plenty of descriptive language; 2) captivating relevant illustrations created with the intention of capturing children’s attention. When religious content is thrown into this intricate mix, it transforms story-time into an occasion of spiritual formation. But, how do you determine whether one Christian picture book is better than the other? The answer is very subjective, but there are some things I would suggest for you all to consider when selecting one:
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SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Homilist:
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB

Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 6, 2012

Gospel Summary

In this passage from the Last Supper Discourse (13:31-17:26), Jesus reveals to his disciples and to us that he is the true vine planted and cared for by his Father. We are the branches, depending on Jesus for life just as branches depend on the vine. “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” Separated from Jesus we cannot bear fruit: like a useless branch we are cut off and soon wither.

To be certain that we have some sense of how radical the gift of sharing his life is, Jesus adds two astonishing statements. If we ask for anything, our Father will give it to us because of the communion of life. It is as though his own beloved Jesus were asking. “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me,” Jesus prayed before restoring his friend Lazarus to life (Jn 11:42). Further, if we bear much fruit from the new Christian life that we have been given, the Father will be glorified in us as he was through Jesus.

Life Implications

At our Eucharist today we hear the gospel as the Christians of John’s community at the end of the first century heard it, not with the incomplete knowledge of the disciples before Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. We have heard the complete good news beginning with the response of Jesus to the question two disciples asked, “Rabbi, where are you dwelling? Jesus said to them, Come, and you will see” (Jn 1:38-39).

Throughout the Last Supper Discourse, Jesus reveals that he dwells in the Father and the Father dwells in him. And he reveals further that he dwells in us and we dwell in him like a vine and its branches. John’s placement of the “vine and branches” saying in the context of the Last Supper reminds us of what Jesus said after feeding a large crowd with bread and fish: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6:56-57).

If we had only the image of the vine and branches, we might draw the conclusion that our finite human life is totally absorbed by infinite divine life. Rather, the good news is that the communion of life in Christ is a communion of love. “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). Life in Christ is a gift freely given, and a gift freely accepted. Tragically, because there is freedom, the life and love of Christ can be rejected.

The fearful possibility of separation from Christ is a consequence of freedom. It is the possibility of seeking an illusory life that the world separated from God offers. The archetypal figure of the disciple Judas, who succumbed to greed in betraying Jesus, is a graphic reminded of that possibility for all of us. We are meant to live in the peace and joy of the Easter gospel, however, not in fear and uncertainty.

“Without me you can do nothing,” Jesus tells us. But with him we can do anything. If we remain in his life and love, we can ask anything of the Father and it will be given. Mindful that Jesus out of love for us, and that his Father might thereby be glorified, did not ask to be saved from his hour of suffering (Jn 12:27). We too will always ask to live in his truth and love. In confident hope that the supreme grace of remaining in Jesus will always be given, we can keep his commandment to love each other as he loved us. Thus, the Father’s goodness will also be revealed in us for his honor and glory. “And the way we know that he [Jesus] remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us” (Second reading, 1 Jn 3:24). In this knowledge of faith and hope is our peace and joy.

Campion P. Gavaler, OSB

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
May 6, 2012

Bearing Much Fruit
No one was more zealous than Saul. He burned with passion to promote the Law of Moses and the traditions of his ancestors. From Turkey to Palestine to Syria he had relentlessly pursued his quest for the glory of God.

But all his hard work did more harm than good. Oh, his efforts bore fruit all right– the sour grapes of legalism, intolerance, and oppression. No wonder many Christians had second thoughts about accepting him as a brother, even after the Damascus road incident. Given his track record, I’m not sure I would have trusted him either.
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Fifth Sunday of Easter: Being with God
The Smithson Family lives in a home like yours in a town like ours. And like every family, there are special times when the whole family gets together. This really means a lot to Kate and Bill Smithson. They are in their 50′s, both working, but their four children have begun their own lives. Two, Frank and Anne, are married and both have children. The other two, Sam and Jean are in the “still looking” faze of life. Bill and Kate just love it when they have their children and now their grandchildren all together for a dinner, or just to chat for awhile.
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Boldly in the Name of the Lord
Bottom line: Ask God to help you understand what you really want. And it will be done for you. Ask boldly. And like St. Paul, act boldly in the name of the Lord.

Today’s readings describe the boldness of faith. The first reading tells about a new convert named Saul, who would later become known as Paul. Even as a relatively young Christian he “spoke boldly in the name of the Lord.” St. John tells us that if we keep the commandments and do what pleases God, we will “receive from him whatever we ask.” Jesus says pretty much the same thing in the Gospel: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.”
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Prepare to be amazed! The 2nd miracle of St. Gianna Molla
I have posted this before, but it seemed appropriate to repost it today. St. Gianna is one of the saints of our time whom I would very much like to see included in an updated version of the traditional Roman calendar.

This is about the 2nd miracle through the intercession of St. Gianna, which lead to her canonization.A person who cause for canonization has been officially advanced is called a “Servant of God”.If they are determined to have died while living a life of “heroic virtue” they are declared “Venerable”.After that, if a miracle is authenticated by their intercession, they are beatified and called “Blessed”.After another miracle they are canonized and called “Saint”.
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VIDEO: What Does “Hallowed Be Thy Name” Mean?
The Lord’s Prayer or “Our Father” is the most popular prayer in the world. Millions of us say it every day, because it was given to us by Jesus himself as the model of Christian prayer.

But do we really understand what we’re saying when we pray it?

How about the words “Hallowed be thy name”?

Many don’t understand this mysterious phrase
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The Shroud’s Rosary Connection
One of the most treasured relics in Christendom is the Shroud of Turin. Countless people believe it is the burial cloth of Jesus.

Not many people can travel to the Turin cathedral, where the shroud is kept. Even if pilgrims could go to Italy, the shroud is rarely displayed for the public. The April-May 2010 showing was a result of Pope Benedict XVI’s giving special permission to “move up” the showing originally scheduled for 2025.
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Hang Up and Connect
In some ways, it’s an update of the scene from years past, where a wife’s words at breakfast didn’t seem to be making an impression on her husband, who had his nose in the morning paper.

But we see far too many examples today of people with their “noses buried” in their smartphones or iPads when they might normally be expected to be interacting with people right next to them.
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Could he be the first Canadian pope?
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, 67, is considered both by Vatican observers and cardinals as one of the front runners to succeed Benedict XVI as the next pope. He is ‘papabile’. He could become the first Canadian pope.

Asked about this on Canada’s “Salt and Light TV” Catholic television channel last Sunday night, April 22, the cardinal described Benedict XVI as “a great pope” and dismissed his own possibility of being pope saying “obviously I do not see myself at this level.”
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Our Own Worst Enemy
On Saturday, while I was attempting to find a church in Pittsburgh that actually offered morning Mass (as opposed to Confirmation services, healing services, and Communion services), I noticed some women walking through the streets.

At the time, I didn’t pay much attention as, 1) They were few in number and kind of angry looking, and 2) I was getting kind of angry looking myself after trying three separate churches and striking out at each one.
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Study: College Age Students Losing Faith
A new study coming out of Georgetown University reports that many in the younger generation known as “millenials” are abandoning orthodoxy at an alarming rate.

The study focusing on 18-to-24-year-old Americans finds many rejecting religious doctrine, according to a joint survey from Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace& World Affairs and the Public Religion Research Institute.

According to the survey, around one quarter of respondents said they don’t identify with any religion. That’s more than twice the 11 percent raised in households without any particular faith, which means that many students are losing their faith during their college years.
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Tear Jerker of the Day
Oh boy. This is a tough one to get through.

A 12 year old kid was always a big fan of the Marines. Now, this kid, mind you, is tough. John Wayne tough. (And please don’t comment how the Duke was actually a big wussy please.) This kid fought off leukemia three times before he was twelve.

A group of Marines decided that the kid was the real deal, a true Marine. Go check out what happened next at Weasel Zippers. I could steal the whole story but then I’d feel bad later.
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Purity is Power
Last year I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. The gallery consists of a classical style building where they display paintings, and a vast geometric sprawl of building which houses modern art. I decided to start off exploring the modern collection. Red leatherette drainpipes were stuck on the wall, a plastic box held fruit pies made out of plaster, enormous mobiles hung from the ceiling and the floor was littered with carved shapes like some gigantic baby had left his blocks lying around. The walls displayed huge canvases—all wonderfully colorful, anarchic and meaningless.
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The Differing Depths of Prayer
Anyone with a regular prayer life can attest to the great variation from one prayer time to the next.Some days, you’re trudging through Scripture like a knee-high river while other days you are elevated beyond the text and find yourself to be counted among the crowd of Jesus’ first-century disciples.Of course, given the chaos of life, the former is much more familiar than the latter, but it is the deep experience with Christ that causes a desire to return to well up within us.The difference from one prayer time to the next has often baffled me – especially when I ardently try to have a profound experience, but am unable to go beyond simple meditation.
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5 Short Stories that Every Catholic should Read
Listers, The genre of the short story is a particularly extraordinary human invention. In a matter of two hours or less, the short story can illustrate some complexities of life without taxing the mind with deep philosophical terms or concepts. As some of us don’t have the proclivity to have intense philosophical and theological discussions on the various nuances of life and faith, the short story provides us with a brief vision on the robust nature of the Christian existence. Many people would suggest that short stories are just for children. However, I would argue that adults need short stories as well. It is one of the few welcome outlets in which adults can hold up a mirror to themselves and observe what they see, warts and all.
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21 Reasons To Go To Confession
1. God commanded we confess our sins to one another in the Bible. (James 5:16)

2. It is the ordinary way to have our sins forgiven.

3. We receive grace to resist sin through the Sacrament, as well as forgiveness.

4. We learn humility by having to confess to another person.

5. There is built-in accountability.
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7 Church Seasons You May Not Be Aware Of…
It’s finally over! As of this afternoon, my wife is done coordinating the annual Sacramental Reception Season! In a few short weeks, it’ll be summer, and the stress that is mid-Spring in our family will be complete!

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Let me explain.

As Catholics, we’re used to the ins-and-outs of the liturgical calendar, with Advent and Lent as times of preparation, Christmas and Easter celebration, and Ordinary Time devoted to … being … ordinary?
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11 BasicQuestions Over the Sacraments
Listers, the following lesson is taken from the Baltimore Catechism. The Baltimore Catechism was the standard catechism of teaching the faith and catechizing children from 1885 to Vatican II. Its basic question-and-answer approach is the most natural learning style for the human mind and simplifies even the most complex theological questions. For a more philosophical treatment, read SPL’s list: St. Thomas Aquinas – “What is a sacrament?”
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Jon Will’s gift
When Jonathan Frederick Will was born 40 years ago — on May 4, 1972, his father’s 31st birthday — the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome was about 20 years. That is understandable.

The day after Jon was born, a doctor told Jon’s parents that the first question for them was whether they intended to take Jon home from the hospital. Nonplussed, they said they thought that is what parents do with newborns. Not doing so was, however, still considered an acceptable choice for parents who might prefer to institutionalize or put up for adoption children thought to have necessarily bleak futures. Whether warehoused or just allowed to languish from lack of stimulation and attention, people with Down syndrome, not given early and continuing interventions, were generally thought to be incapable of living well, and hence usually did not live as long as they could have.
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What Difference Does Heaven Make?
If a thing makes no difference, it is a waste of time to think about it. We should begin, then, with the question, What difference does Heaven make to earth, to now, to our lives?

The answer to the question is only the difference between hope and despair in the end, between two totally different visions of life; between “chance or the dance.”
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When an Atheist Discovered Sin
I was an atheist. I didn’t believe in God and tried to convince those who did that they were stupid for doing so.

If you had asked me then whether I thought “sin” existed or whether I had ever sinned, I would have laughed. “Sin is a Christian concept intended to induce feelings of guilt for imagined offenses against an imaginary god.” I may have even started singing “Spirit in the Sky” to you for satirical purposes.
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SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

Silence is Necessary

Homilist: Fr. Michael Phillippino

Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 29, 2012

I had a friend in the seminary who became a Stigmatine priest. The superior of the house would see him lying on his bed and apparently doing nothing, so he would give him something to do. But my friend would explain that he was indeed working; he was putting together, in his mind, an article for some religious journal or publication of some sort. When the check of $50 or $100 would come in, he would give it to his superior and tell him, “See, this is what I was doing lying on the bed.”

We sometimes have a similar problem with silence. We have all types of devices now that can keep us occupied throughout the day if we choose. The point is: silence is very powerful and is necessary for us if we are serious about seeking God in our lives.

Wednesday night, we had continued with “A Biblical Walk Through the Mass” seminar that we had started in March. Those attending were very impressed with the importance of silence in the liturgy. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal reminds us that we should pause before and after the readings, since when the word of God is read, the pause provides us a time to prepare and the silence after gives us some time to sit in awe that God has actually spoken to us.

The Church teaches us that when a Lector proclaims the word of God, he or she is actually lending their voice to God, that he may speak His Word to the congregation. The point is God is not only speaking when we hear his word, he is also speaking in the silence.

It is important for us to learn to listen in silence and to teach our children how to stay in the silence since it will help them become aware of who they are, but also teach them how to deal with some of the darkness within them. I once knew a man who was part owner of a golf club. He would hire teenagers to work around the golf course, but he would send them off by themselves because he wanted them working and not fooling around. However, they would come back after only a few hours, he said, because they could not deal with the solitude of the world and the stuff that was coming up in them.

If, however,, we learn the importance of silence before God in our lives, we can have some powerful experiences of his love and guidance for us. In his book “The Way of the Disciple”, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis quotes one of Guerric of Igny’s sermons, which said, “If in the depths of your soul you were to keep a quiet silence, the all-powerful word would flow from the Father’s throne secretly into you. Happy then is the person who has so fled the world’s tumult, who has so withdrawn into the solitude and secrecy of interior peace, that he can hear not only the Voice of the Word but the Word himself: not John but Jesus.”

In today’s Gospel, our Lord reminds us that he has sheep who will hear his voice. How can we hear unless we listen? Silence is a necessary part of our lives, silence in God’s presence, and silence in awe of God’s word. In heaven there is silence in the heavenly liturgy, as we read in Revelations 8:1, “When he broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”

Sisters and brothers, let us learn to imitate Mary, who in the silence “kept all of these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:18)

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
April 29, 2012

Fourth Sunday of Easter
In our largely urban society we tend to glamorize sheep herding. In fact, and especially in Jesus’ day, it was a lonely, harsh and dangerous occupation. Jesus was not using hyperbole, therefore, when he says that the good shepherd must be ready to lay down his life for the sheep. It is only the bad shepherd, for whom the sheep are of merely utilitarian value, who flees because he is unwilling to risk his own life when they are attacked.
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The Way, The Truth, and The Life – Jesus Only!
Life It’s not politically incorrect to believe in God. Just so long as you acknowledge that all are God’s children, and that there are many, equally honorable paths to the Most High. After all, that’s only fair. How conceited it would be to claim that your way is the only way.

There is nothing really new about this attitude. In the days of the Roman Emperors, no one had any problems with people worshiping some carpenter from Galilee who they believed to be God’s son. As long as they’d be broad-minded enough to worship the emperor and Jupiter, and the rest of the Pantheon as well.
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4th Easter: He Makes Us Want To Be Better
Recently I have been doing a lot of reading on the first days of our country. I read a really good book about the Founding Father, another one just on George Washington, and am just finishing a book of the War of 1812. I have on deck a book on Thomas Jefferson, one on Andrew Jackson, and McCullough’s 1776.

Most of these early American leaders were religious people in that they believed in God and trusted in Him to guide the country. They put “In God We Trust,” on our coinage. At the same time, most of them embraced a philosophy/theology that said God was distant from the individual. You might remember that they called this type of religion Deism. Simply put, Deism would say, that God created mankind and is available for major emergencies, but He doesn’t get involved with an individual person’s problems or even his or her life.
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If We Can’t Call Priests “Father,” It Doesn’t Leave Much
Some time ago, I wrote a post on why we Catholics call our priests “Father.” In a nutshell, this is a recognition of the priest’s spiritual fatherhood. St. Paul sets the pattern for this in 1 Cor. 4:15, when he tells Timothy, “I became your father through the Gospel.” The typical objection to this title is based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:9 (“call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven”). But these words aren’t meant to be taken literally, as passages like Matthew 1:2, Mt. 10:37, Mark 10:29, Ephesians 6:2, James 2:21, and Romans 9:10 make clear.

Rather, Jesus is telling us in Matthew 23:9 to have no allegiances apart from Him. So it’s right to have St. Paul as a spiritual father (1 Cor. 4:15), but not in such a way that it turns into factionalism that damages or diminishes the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 1:12-13).
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Clarifying Certain Misunderstandings About Confirmation
Yesterday we discussed a bit about baptism and some of the pastoral practices surrounding it. Today in a kind of companion piece I’d like to address some of the distortions and confusion that often surround the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Some one once said that Confirmation is the Sacrament in search of a theology. While not true, the statement does capture that there is a lot of incorrect and sometimes silly teaching about this sacrament to young people. And since it is the season for Confirmations, it may be helpful to explore what the Catechism teaches about the sacrament.
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Benedict XVI reflects on the truth and inspiration of the Bible
The annual meeting of the Pontifical Biblical Commission this year was devoted to the topic of “the inspiration and truth of the Bible.” The Holy Father gave a brief comment to the commission members on April 18. This theme of inspiration and truth is needed for a correct interpretation of the Bibles’s message. The Bible itself is a product of the Church and Tradition; it was not first written and then the Church appeared. The Church appeared in an organized way. It subsequently recalled and recorded the essential teaching of the Christ and the apostles. The ultimate origin of the Bible is not human but is found in the Logos, in the Word of God. But this origin does not prevent God also from using human instruments. This is what Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul are about.
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When God says “No”
It is common for all of us to have to struggle as to the great mystery of God’s providence and will. If it is not our own struggle then we must often commiserate with others who are in distress. One person is losing her young daughter to cancer, a friend is struggling to find work, still another has a husband who is drinking. Some will say to me, “I’ve been praying, Father. Nothing seems to happen.” I am not always sure what to say and God doesn’t often explain why we must suffer, or why he delays, or why he says, “No.”
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On Fifteen Years a Catholic
“How can you join a church that tells you how to think?”

The question, uttered with equal parts puzzlement and anger, surprised me. In hindsight, it should have been about as surprising as an afternoon drizzle here in Eugene, Oregon, in early spring. The question—almost an accusation, really—was made one early spring day over fifteen years ago. It was said in the middle of an intense discussion about the reasons why my wife and I had, both graduates of Evangelical Bible colleges, had decided to become Catholic.
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Which Books Were in Early Christian Bibles
What canon of Scripture did the earliest Christians use? A Protestant going by the handle Lojahw (Lover of Jesus and His word) argues that it was the modern Protestant Bible. Specifically, he claimed that:

There were at least nine church fathers from the second through the fourth centuries who endorsed the shorter canon: six explicitly listed Esther, including Jerome and Rufinus, who agreed book-for-book with the Protestant canon.I called him out on this claim, because it’s demonstrably untrue (as we’ll soon see).
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Pope: Make Prayer a Priority
On April 25, Pope Benedict XVI told more than 20,000 pilgrims that they must commit themselves to works of charity, without neglecting prayer as a source of spiritual life.

“Without daily prayer,” Pope Benedict said in his Wednesday morning general audience in St. Peter’s Square, “our action is empty” and “loses its deep soul, resulting in a simple activism that eventually leaves (us) unsatisfied.”
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On the Sin of Rash Judgment
On of the most common sins committed, and yet, one of the sins least confessed, is the sin of Rash Judgment. The commercial below humorously depicts the sin and how wrong we can sometimes be.

But in reality the sin is not often humorous and can lead us to some very dark places. We may, on account of rash judgments, harbor grudges, resentments, fears, and unjust anger. We may allow rash judgment to foster our pride as we feel superior to others, and we may carry deep hurts, or even seek revenge, all based on misinformation, or misinterpretation of what others do. And gossip is usually the daughter (or son) of rash judgment.
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Trusting the Lord in Difficult Circumstances
When it was evening, his disciples went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading. (John 6:16-21)
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Tomb of Apostle Philip Found
At about the same time as the July/August 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review was hitting the newsstands, containing an article about St. Philip’s Martyrium,* author and excavation director Francesco D’Andria was making an exciting new discovery in the field at Hierapolis, one of the most significant sites in Christian Turkey. A month later he announced it: They had finally found the tomb of the martyred apostle Philip.
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One Flock,One Shepherd (John 10:11-18)
John 10:11-18: ‘I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, and one shepherd. The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father.’
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The Healing of a Football Player’s Wounded Heart
The 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be celebrated this Sunday, April 29, with the theme “Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God.” This theme is very close to the heart of Father Joseph Freedy, director of priestly vocations for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

There was a time when such a concept was distant from his heart, which had been set on worldly goods. He was a standout quarterback in high school and at the University of Buffalo. Thousands cheered him on and looked up to him, but his heart remained restless. Despite his earnest attempts to the contrary, he could not find happiness in the noise of the world.
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Knowing Mary Through the Bible: Mary’s Holy Hour
One crucial theme in John’s Gospel can shed much light on Mary’s unique role in salvation history. This theme is so foundational that it will help us see how Mary becomes the “New Eve” and the spiritual mother of all Christians. Let’s look at this fundamental motif in the fourth Gospel: “the hour.”

The mysterious theme of Christ’s “hour” runs as a narrative thread through the Gospel of John and creates dramatic suspense for the reader. We first encounter this motif at the beginning of Christ’s public ministry during the wedding feast of Cana, when Jesus says to Mary, “My hour has not yet come” (Jn. 2:4). At this point, Jesus does not clarify what this hour is or when it will come. He only says that this mysterious hour has yet to arrive.
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Can You BeGood Without God?
Time and again the middle-aged Catholic mother will ask me, “I can’t get my kids to go to Mass. Why don’t they go to Mass anymore?”

My answer shocks them: “Your kids don’t go to Mass because they don’t believe the Catholic faith.”

I go on to ask, “They probably think they can be good without going to Mass, right?” Nine times out of ten, they nod knowingly.
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SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Homilist:
Fr. Father Cusick

Third Sunday of Easter
April 22, 2012

At Emmaus Jesus gave his Body and Blood as he celebrated the Eucharist. There the disciples encountered the Easter Christ: “they had come to know Jesus in the breaking of bread.” (Lk 24, 25) “Breaking of bread” is an ancient name for the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass. Each of us relives the wonder and awe of Emmaus at every Mass. We “know Jesus the Lord” in the most perfect way outside of heaven itself as the priest, acting in the person of Christ, offers the Mass. In this way we encounter the Resurrection as an historical and transcendent event. Earth and heaven come together in Jesus the God-Man as he appears before us on the altar of sacrifice.

“The mystery of Christ’s resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about a.d. 56, St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve…” (1 Cor 15:3-4) The Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus. (Cf. Acts 9:3-18)” (CCC 639)

The Gospel records the appearances of the risen Christ and tells of the panic and fright, the joy and wonder of the women and the Apostles who first saw him. This is put down in writing so that we may know, even as we experience the same lack of belief as they surely did, that Christ really and truly rose from the dead. We must through God’s grace overcome our lack of belief and embrace the virtue of faith more and more. “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” Without faith we cannot freely choose to love God as he commands us to do. It is through the virtue of love, freely chosen, of Jesus the risen Lord, encountered in faith, that we hope to share in the Resurrection of the Lord. Even the beautiful accounts of Jesus in the Gospel are only fully understood and accepted by faith. The Easter gift of the Eucharist is the fount of these and all the gifts of grace.

“Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One. (Mk 16:1; Lk 24:1; Jn 19:31, 42) Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ’s Resurrection for the apostles themselves. (Cf. Lk 24:9-10; Mt 28:9-10; Jn 20:11-18) They were the next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to strengthen the faith of his brothers, (Cf. 1 Cor 15:5; Lk 22:31-32) and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” (Lk 24:34, 36)” (CCC 641) Be a messenger of the Resurrection; live the glory of Easter through the transcendent gifts of faith, hope and love.
http://www.parishworld.net/con_KnowingOurFaith.cfm?contentUUID=CC06009B-2219-2361-ACA54A2EA98D9E2F|201204

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
April 22, 2012

3rd Easter: Jesus is Real!
Every year I teach a religion class or two at Guardian Angels School where I am also pastor. Towards the end of the school year, I have a question box session where I answer whatever questions the students have previously prepared. OK, so that means that a lot of them are about sex, but that is acceptable as long as the adolescents are sincerely searching for answers.
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Easter Ghost – 3rd Sunday of Easter
In the heyday of the Roman Empire, the corruption of the times caused a wave of dissatisfaction to ripple across the civilized world. Many were disgusted with the gross sensuality of society and yearned for a higher, spiritual kind of existence. They sought a redeemer who would come down from heaven and enlighten those who walked in darkness.
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Did Jesus really eat after the Resurrection?
3rd Sunday of Easter, Luke 24:35-48

While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.

Christ our Savior manifested the corporality of his glorified body through two principal proofs: First, he allowed his disciples to touch him; second, he ate in their presence.
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Understanding Christ’s Resurrected Body
This Sunday’s Gospel involves one of the Easter Sunday appearances of Jesus Christ to the Disciples. It starts out with the two disciples from the road to Emmaus returning to describe how “Jesus was made known to themin the breaking of bread,” an obvious Eucharistic reference. But in the midst of this discussion, Christ appears (Lk. 24:36-43):
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Where was Jesus during the forty days after Easter?
We know that Christ truly rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples in bodily form at various times during the forty days from Easter Sunday to Ascension Thursday. Christ our God was truly upon the Earth and in the world, even in his glorified flesh, for all of those days until he ascended into heaven.

The gospels speak of ten apparitions of the risen Jesus, and we gather at least two more from St. Paul. But, we wonder, where was Jesus during the rest of those forty days? Where was the Lord when he was not visibly present to his disciples?
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The Church Must Not Fear Persecutions But Trust In The Presence of God
Vatican City, 18 April 2012 (VIS) – Returning to a recent series of catecheses on the theme of prayer, Benedict XVI dedicated his general audience this morning to what has been called the “Little Pentecost”, an event which coincided with a difficult moment in the life of the nascent Church.

The Acts of the Apostles tell us how Peter and John were released from prison following their arrest for preaching the Gospel. They returned to their companions who, listening to their account of what had happened, did not reflect on how to react or defend themselves, or on what measures to adopt; rather, “in that moment of trial they all raised their voices together to God”, Who replied by sending the Holy Spirit.
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“BREWING FOR YEARS”! Archbishop Chaput Sees US Trending Against Religious Liberty
In an exclusive interview on his new eBook “A Heart on Fire,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput says the recent contraception mandate points to a “pattern” of attacks on religious liberty in the U.S.

These attacks, he noted, are changing America into a country more hostile to religion in general and to Catholicism in particular.
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Are Catholics Born Again Christians?
My godly Evangelical mother used to “witness” when we were out shopping. She’d ask the store keeper, “Have you been born again?” If the conversation got going she’d relate the story of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in the third chapter of John’s gospel. I don’t know if she ever succeeded in making convert, but she succeeded in embarrassing me somewhat. I’m now embarrassed that I was embarrassed and, in hindsight, admire her courage, faith and zeal.

The question remains, however, “Just what is a ‘born again Christian’”?
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Knowing Mary Through the Bible: Mary’s Question — a Vow?
Mary has only one question for the angel Gabriel. And it’s a question that provides a beautiful window into Our Lady’s unique spiritual life, but one we might overlook if we don’t read the Annunciation account carefully:

Mary says to the angel, “How can this be since I do not know man?” (Lk. 1:34). [1]

Two important facts will help us better appreciate the significance of Mary’s question. First, at this moment in the story we know that Mary is a virgin betrothed to Joseph, meaning that she is at the first stage of marriage. She is truly married to Joseph but not yet living with him, for she has not arrived at the second stage of marriage known as the “coming together,” when husband and wife typically would begin to live in the same house and consummate the marriage.
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Humility: The First of the Lively Virtues
When Thomas Aquinas asked how it was that Satan believed, in his pride, that he could be like God, he denied that even the devil could be so blind as actually to believe that he could be God. For Satan understood by natural knowledge that that was impossible. He could not create heaven and earth from nothing, as he well knew. Besides, says Thomas, no creature desires its own demise, which must occur if it is to pass in essence from one grade of being to a higher grade. Rather, Satan desired to be like God “because he desired, as the ultimate goal of beatitude, that which he could attain by the power of his own nature, turning his desire away from that beatitude beyond nature which is bestowed by the free gift of God” (S. T. I.63.4). And this understanding of Satan’s sin, Thomas adds, is in accord with the opinion of Anselm, who said that Satan “desired what he would have attained if he had but stood.”
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The Interior Life
The interior life for a Catholic means finding God in all things, leading to a life of contemplation in action.

Faith in Jesus Christ has consequences. A devout Catholic, who takes his faith seriously, will live in way that is in conformity with Catholic doctrine and morals. An atheist will lead a different kind of life since he sets his own norms. The Catholic who leads a serious interior life, and lives in accordance with the truth he knows, will be at peace with God, with himself and with his neighbor. He will also find a certain amount of limited happiness and joy because he has found purpose and meaning in his life.
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How to Find God (in Six Not-So-Easy Steps)
I regularly get emails from people who say that they’ve been seeking God, but haven’t found him. They often express disappointment and frustration at the fact that once-promising spiritual journeys have now led to a dead end, and they want to know: “Is there anything else I can do?”

I’m not a spiritual director or a theologian, but I do have plenty of experience with spiritual dry spells and difficulties in the process of conversion, and I’ve spent a lot of time talking with wise people about common struggles in this department. While it’s important to understand that any kind of powerful experiences of God are a gift, that there’s not some magic formula we can follow that will guarantee that we’ll receive a flood of consolation, there are certain things we can do to make more room in our hearts for God’s presence.
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Why Do We Suffer? The Theological Answer of St Paul
Nearly every religion seeks to make sense of the problem of pain. If God is both omnibenificent {all-loving} and omnipotent {all-powerful}, why then does He allow us to suffer? The Eastern traditions such as Buddhism dismiss pain and suffering as “unreal.” This solution is difficult to explain to a child with cancer. Other religious traditions attempt to accrue “good karma” in order to ensure that good times will come with a future reincarnated life. For these traditions, the origin of suffering is past sins, even sins committed in previous lives. Still other religions, such as Islam, seem to place the origin of suffering in the capricious “will of Allah.”
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Raising “Alleluia” Kids in a “Whatever” World
I saw an 18 year old girl yesterday put air quotes on the word “love.” She was asked by her friend if she loved her boyfriend. And she shrugged, saying, “I guess I ‘love’ him whatever that means” with the air quotes.

You see, she wasn’t questioning her feelings for him. She was questioning the existence of love itself. And it just blew me away and I wondered what went wrong with this girl’s life. She’s sitting in the bleachers of her sister’s softball game on a beautiful day with car keys dangling from her fingers and an IPhone in her palm and she absolutely seems hopeless.
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Our Great Act of Faith
Is one of the greatest spiritual diseases inflicting our age a lack of confidence in the love of God? Confident as we are in technology, science and psychology, we are not able to bear with one another the way the generations before us were. Our sacred promises unkept, our marriages broken, our children neglected, our dignity diminished: our faith in materialism has not given us confidence. What has robbed us of our courage to stand fast in the midst of hardship, to believe in love in the face of the sin that afflicts us all?
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150,000,000 New Catholics
A few days ago the WSJ printed a piece called, “Traditional Catholicism is winning,” by Anne Hendershott and Christopher White regarding rising vocations in the Catholic priesthood.

Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter, quoted Mary Gautier, senior research associate at the Center for Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in his own response to the WSJ in his own article entitled “Qualifying the WSJ’s conclusions about vocations”. Roberts questioned Anne Hendershott and Christopher White’s numbers in vocations and asked what they really mean in real world application. Here is the quote from Mary Gautier:
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6 Educational Online Resources to Inspire Children to Love Their Faith
Listers, as a Catholic parent the most important duty for me is to shape my children into being excellent members of the body of Christ. Although the task is a virtuous one, it can be a bit arduous as younger children have small or non-existent attention spans. Although I am not an advocate of “dumbing” down or making the essence of our faith less serious for the sake of reaching our children, I do believe we have to temper our theologically-charged faith into terms that our children can understand. Perhaps this is a more challenging task than keeping our children still during prayer. Also young children are visual and tactile learners, which means they remember things when they have the opportunity to get to create something. Fortunately, as we all live in the “Information Age” there are many resources within our reach that can help us capture our children’s attention without sacrificing the seriousness of our Catholic faith.
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Priests Dressing Like Laymen
The priests of our diocese are on retreat this week, and they were told that “clerical attire is optional”. The vicar general told them so. A vicar general is supposed to know Canon Law…Canon 284, anyone? But then, who cares about Canon Law?

Priests dressing like laymen… Why would they want to do that?
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SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

Oh Ye of Little Faith – Doubting Thomas

Homilist:
Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D.

Second Sunday of Easter
April 15, 2012

We don’t know where Thomas was. All we know is that he missed it. All the others were huddling together behind locked doors, hoping that the authorities would be satisfied with the blood of their master and leave them alone.

But Jesus wouldn’t leave them alone. Despite the locked doors, there He stood, glorious in their midst, bringing peace where there had been only fear. Instead of rebuking them for cowardice, He breathes upon them the Spirit of mercy and commissions them to be ambassadors, indeed instruments, of His Divine mercy. They are at last truly “apostles,” for they are “sent out,” like Jesus, the original Apostle, who was sent forth by the Father for the forgiveness of sins. Sinners, called to bring other sinners the Good News of mercy. Sinners, called to console others with the same consolation that they have received from the One without sin.

They couldn’t believe that Thomas missed this encounter and couldn’t wait to tell him the news. But Thomas stubbornly refused to believe that it was anything more than a mirage. For everyone knows that death is final. Corpses don’t come back to life and show up for afternoon tea. Never mind His many puzzling predictions about “raising up this temple in three days.” Never mind the fact that all of his brothers save Judas were there and swore they saw His wounds. Thomas proudly insisted on empirical evidence that he could personally inspect to his own satisfaction.

So eight days later the Master once again defies the barred doors and appears in their midst. This time Thomas is present. Imagine the look on his face as his eyes and Jesus’ meet. Talking about wanting to crawl under the nearest rock! Jesus invites him to sate his appetite for proof and probe His wounds. Thomas decides not to explain, not to defend, but simply to surrender. He is asked to believe that His master is risen. But he rises to the occasion to confess even more–that His master is not just Lord, but God. Thomas’ confession of Jesus’ divinity can be seen as the climax, the punch-line, of the entire Gospel of John, a fitting confirmation of its very first verse: “the Word was with God and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1).

Faith now has overcome fear. It will soon overcome the world. It would take some time, mind you, for the mightiest empire the world had ever seen to fall to its knees in adoration. But eventually, brutal emperors dropped their pretensions, abandoned their pride, and confessed the very same faith as the formerly doubting Thomas. In the words of our second reading, “the power that has conquered the world is this faith of ours (I Jn 5:4).

Faith has this sort of power because it is a supernatural gift. It was the Spirit He breathed on them that Easter afternoon that had empowered the ten to believe and become themselves ambassadors of faith and mercy. Without that same Spirit, Thomas was powerless to believe. But once the breath of the Risen unfroze his hard heart, Thomas too could experience the joy of faith and assume his God-appointed task to be one of the foundation stones of the new temple of God, the Church.

This temple, formed by living stones, was a compelling testimony indeed. The pagans are reported to have remarked “see how these Christians love one another.” For they were a community of people who appeared to have one heart and one mind (Acts 4:32-35). They even shared their material resources so that none would be in need. This unity flowed from their one faith.

Thomas was once known as the doubter. But he and his fellow doubters came to be called “the believers.” That should give us hope. If we desire it, the Spirit will strengthen the drooping hands and weak knees of our own imperfect faith to make us effective ambassadors to a skeptical world.
http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/919/Oh_Ye_of_Little_Faith___Doubting_Thomas.html

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
April 15, 2012

The Final and Ultimate Encounter
Whenever you see a picture of St Thomas he is almost always represented as touching the wound in Christ’s side. But in fact the Gospel does not record this event.

Christ certainly showed him his wounds and invited him to put his finger into them but it seems that Thomas never took up the offer. What he did instead was to make an extraordinary profession of faith with the words “My Lord and my God.
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Second Sunday of Easter
The first thing that we notice in today’s gospel is the amazing effect of that the presence and words of Jesus have on his confused and frightened disciples. He finds them in hiding, completely immobilized by the terrible realization of the death of their beloved leader. He addresses them cheerfully with the standard greeting: “Peace.” Under normal circumstances, this simply means that one wishes another well. But it means far more than that when spoken by the risen Lord. The disciples feel that the world is out of control. Jesus assures them that such is not the case. In fact, he is there to offer them the gift of deep and unshakable confidence. In spite of dire appearances, all is well.
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Divine Mercy Sunday and the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Several years ago, the Catholic Church declared the Sunday after Easter “Divine Mercy Sunday.” So what exactly is “mercy” anyway, and what does it have to do with the Easter season?

Mercy is not just pity. Neither is it simply sparing someone the punishment that they deserve. No, mercy is love’s response to suffering. When mercy encounters suffering, it ultimately seeks to alleviate it. God the Father is so “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4) that Paul calls him “the Father of all mercies and the God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3).
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Pope: The Resurrection Transforms Our Lives, Bringing Joy
Believers in Christ can look to his resurrection as a source of fearless confidence, Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square at his first general audience of the 2012 Easter season.

Jesus’ victory over death, the Pope said on April 11, “transforms our lives; it frees them from fear, gives them firm hope, and infuses them with something that provides existence with full meaning: the love of God.”
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When did the Resurrection become truly the Faith, and the official teaching of the Church?
In the early hours of the resurrection appearances on the first Easter Sunday news began to be circulated that Jesus was alive and had been seen. These reports were, at first disbelieved or at least doubted by the apostles. Various reports from both women and men were dismissed by the apostles. But suddenly in the evening of that first Easter Sunday there is a change, and a declaration by the apostles that the Lord “has truly risen!” What effected this change? We will see in a moment. But first note the early reports of the resurrection and how they were largely disregarded:
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The Miracle of Life
StAR’s publisher, Bruce Fingerhut, just sent me this link. It’s astonishing. It shows the development of a human baby from conception to birth using computer graphics. The images are beautiful in their own right, and well worth watching, but what I found most fascinating was the frank admission by this brilliant mathematician that the statistical odds against such a mechanism ever coming into being by accident were unthinkable, rationally speaking. He keeps using the word “magic” but once let slip the word “divinity”. This nine minute video should be sufficient for any rational person to see through the nonsense of Dawkins and his superstitious and unscientific materialism.
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“Lapsed” Catholics…
In 2007, a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life study reported that one-third of Americans were raised Catholic but slightly less than one-third of those (~11% of all Catholics) stopped practicing their faith in the sense of “stopped attending Mass.”

That raises the question, “Why are those people not attending Mass?”

A USA Today article discussed a recent study of 298 people—67% of whom were women—who stopped attending Mass in the Diocese of Trenton (NJ). The study indicates they did so for three reasons:
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This Fiesty Manifesto is Just What American Catholics Need
“Social issues.” It’s a squishy, equivocal term suited to a mentality ill at ease with the hard-edged implications of “moral issues” and “morality.” What implications? That there are definite moral truths that show some things to be always and everywhere wrong and deserving of condemnation. Not what the “social issues” mindset cares to hear.

There’s some helpful thinking on this subject in a new book by an archbishop that I want to recommend. But before getting to that, let me do a little scene-setting.
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Emmerich’s vision of the Harrowing of Hell – “Lucifer will be unchained for a time fifty or sixty years before AD 2000″
On Holy Saturday we remember the fact that Our Lord descended into Hell and liberated all those poor souls – since the our first parents, Adam and Eve, onwards – who had been waiting and longing for his saving redemption. He also subjected all things to his victory – even the demons, who were forced to ‘bow the knee’ at his appearing.

The German mystic, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774 – 1824), famously received several visions depicting intimate moments from the life of Jesus, as well as the lives of Mary and many other saints.
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The Shroud of Turin, represented at every Mass
Then cometh Simon Peter … and went into the sepulcher, and saw the linen cloths lying, And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. (John 20: 6-7)

The Shroud of Turin is traditionally believed to be the pure linen burial cloth which was wrapped around the Corpse of our Savior and which was found in the empty tomb on the first Easter Sunday. The image of our Lord miraculously imprinted upon the Shroud is a visible indication and (to some degree) “proof” of the Resurrection
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Who’s Choosing the Religious Life? Study Says Newly Professed Are Young and More Educated
A recent study of men and women who professed perpetual vows in 2011 shows that new members of religious orders are younger and more educated than those in the past.

“We are encouraged by the report’s findings that men and women are considering a vocation at a younger age,” said Mercy Sister Mary Joanna Ruhland, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Vocations and Consecrated Life.
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Overwhelmed
Everyone tells you how hard marriage is. They warn you against letting the sun go down on your anger, give creative ideas for date nights and share war stories from their newlywed years. Intellectually, you know all of this is true, all possible, and so you take notes. You try hard to budget for a date night, talk about your day and listen to your spouse, and you look forward to the time you can share your own war stories. “Remember when we only had 1 closet for the 2 of us?!”
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Church Welcomes Thousands of New Catholics at Easter
Thousands of new Catholics were baptized and thousands more Christians were received into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil last weekend.

Jeanette DeMelo, communications director for the Archdiocese of Denver (and recently named editor and chief of the Register, to start in June), reflected on the vigil Mass’ beginnings in darkness and the symbolism of its transformation into full light.
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The untold story of the Titanic’s Catholic priest who went down hearing confessions
Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told.

It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel.

A 42-year-old English convert, Fr. Byles was on his way to New York to offer the wedding Mass for his brother William. Reports suggest that he was reciting his breviary on the upper deck when the Titanic struck the iceberg in the twilight hours of Sunday, April 14th, 1912.
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6 Quotes from the Church Fathers on Mourning the Loss of a Child or Loved One
Listers, when there is a death in the family, it is always very hard to find the right words to say. I always struggle with this and end up bumbling through my condolences. In the end, I always feel that whatever I say is trite even though my attempts were heartfelt and well-meaning. It is especially hard to console a family when they are grieving the loss of a child. Recently, a couple members of my extended family lost not one child but two in the span of one year, so I felt like words were not enough. I decided to seek out the wisdom of the Church Fathers, who always know the right thing to say. What I found was not only uplifting but shed some light on how Catholics ought to view death. Whether it is you who might have lost a child or someone you might know, these quotes from the Church Fathers might be of some consolation. This list is a compilation of my findings:
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Actor Andy Garcia Fights for Religious Freedom in ‘For Greater Glory’
In the film For Greater Glory, which opens April 20 in Mexico and June 1 in the U.S., actor Andy Garcia plays the lead role of atheistic Gen. Enrique Gorostieta, who is hired to lead the Cristero Army — so-called because they were fighting for Cristo Rey (Christ the King) — in its 1926-1929 fight against the Mexican government, which was persecuting Catholics.
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Top 10 Catholic News Sites
Listers, it almost goes without question that the mainstream media does not understand religion, much less the one true faith of Holy Mother Church. Catholicism cannot be boiled down to a list of doctrines, but demands a formation of the intellect and way of thinking. To properly report on Catholicism a Catholic news source is a necessity. The following sites represent the best Catholic news outlets available to the laity, and have been distinguished from SPL’s list of the Best in Catholic Blogging.
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Fr. Flanagan Wouldn’t Qualify Either
One of the more disturbing aspects of this HHS mandate is knowing the degree to which our nation has profited from Catholics only now to have our consciences treated so shabbily.

As an example I give you the life of Fr. Edward J. Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town, and whose cause has recently opened. Many may remember the 1938 movie about the straight-talking priest played by Spenser Tracy, who won an academy award for his portrayal. Fr. Flanagan not only started a ministry for lost and abandoned boys in his neighborhood of Omaha but extended that work of compassion all over the country so that boys would beg, borrow and steal in order to come to Boys Town.
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SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

Seeing the Resurrection

Homilist:
Fr. Ron Rolheiser

Easter Sunday
April 8, 2012

God never overpowers, never twists arms, never pushes your face into something so as to take away your freedom. God respects our freedom and is never a coercive force.
And nowhere is this more true than in what is revealed in the resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels assure us that, like his birth, the resurrection was physical, real, not just some alteration inside the consciousness of believers. After the resurrection, we are assured, Jesus’ tomb was empty, people could touch him, he ate food with them, he was not a ghost.

But his rising from the dead was not a brute slap in the face to his critics, a non-negotiable fact that left sceptics with nothing to say. The resurrection didn’t make a big splash. It was not some spectacular event that exploded into the world as the highlight on the evening news. It had the same dynamics as the incarnation itself: After he rose from the dead, Jesus was seen by some, but not by others; understood by some, but not by others. Some got his meaning and it changed their lives, others were indifferent to him, and still others understood what had happened, hardened their hearts against it, and tried to destroy its truth.

Notice how this parallels, almost perfectly, what happened at the birth of Jesus: The baby was real, not a ghost, but he was seen by some, but not by others and the event was understood by some but not by others. Some got its meaning and it changed their lives, others were indifferent and their lives went on as before, while still others (like Herod) sensed its meaning but hardened their hearts against it and tried to destroy the child.
Why the difference? What makes some see the resurrection while others do not? What lets some understand the mystery and embrace it, while others are left in indifference or hatred?

Hugo of St. Victor used to say: Love is the eye! When we look at anything through the eyes of love, we see correctly, understand, and properly appropriate its mystery. The reverse is also true. When we look at anything through eyes that are jaded, cynical, jealous, or bitter, we will not see correctly, will not understand, and will not properly appropriate its mystery.

We see this in how the Gospel of John describes the events of Easter Sunday. Jesus has risen, but, first of all, only the person who is driven by love, Mary Magdala, goes out in search of him. The others remain as they are, locked inside their own worlds. But love seeks out its beloved and Mary Magdala goes out, spices in hand, wanting at least to embalm his dead body. She finds his grave empty and runs back to Peter and the beloved disciple and tells them the tomb is empty. The two race off together, towards the tomb, but the disciple whom Jesus loved out-runs Peter and gets to the tomb first, but he doesn’t enter, he waits for Peter (authority) to go in first.

Peter enters the empty tomb, sees the linens that had covered the body of Jesus, but does not understand. Then the beloved disciple, love, enters. He sees and he does understand. Love grasps the mystery. Love is the eye. It is what lets us see and understand the resurrection.

That is why, after the resurrection, some saw Jesus but others did not. Some understood the resurrection while others did not. Those with the eyes of love saw and understood. Those without the eyes of love either didn’t see anything or were perplexed or upset by what they did see.

There are lots of ways to be blind. I remember an Easter Sunday some years ago when I was a young graduate student in San Francisco. Easter Sunday was late that year and it was a spectacularly beautiful spring day. But on that particular day I was mostly blind to what was around me. I was young, homesick, alone on Easter Sunday, and nursing a huge heartache. That colored everything I was seeing and feeling. It was Easter Sunday, in spring, in high sunshine, but, for what I was seeing, it might as well have been midnight, on Good Friday, in the dead of winter.

Lonely and nursing a heartache, I took a walk to calm my restlessness. At the entrance of a park, I saw a blind beggar holding a sign that read: It’s spring and I’m blind! The irony wasn’t lost on me. I was blind that day, more blind than that beggar, seeing neither spring nor the resurrection. What I was seeing were only those things that reflected what was going on inside my own heart.

Christ is risen, though we might not see him! We don’t always notice spring. The miraculous doesn’t force itself on us. It’s there, there to be seen, but whether we see or not, and what precisely we do see, depends mainly upon what’s going on inside our own hearts.

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio Texas.

http://parishworld.net/con_KnowingOurFaith.cfm?contentUUID=7F2CFD8F-2219-2361-AC9807C905CB9C89|201204

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday John 20:1-9
John’s gospel ends as it began, with the question: where does Jesus dwell? Immediately after his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan, Jesus noticed two of the Baptist’s disciples following him. He said to them, “What are you looking for?” They replied, “Rabbi where are you dwelling?” Jesus said to them, “Come, and you will see” (1:38-39). Now at the end after his death and burial, Mary of Magdala goes to the tomb while it is still dark to visit this final earthly dwelling place of Jesus. Seeing that the tomb is empty, she finds Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved, and says to them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”
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An Easter Parable
Listen to an Easter parable. The father was in a foul mood. He wanted to attend the Easter Liturgy with his wife and three children. Sunday worship with his family was special for him. He believed in the dictum that teaches that the family that worships together stays together. But he was the new manager of a fast-food restaurant. The owner, anticipating a large crowd, ordered him to work Easter Sunday.
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Easter: The Power of the Cross Is Given to Us.
On Good Friday hundred of people at St. Ignatius and millions of people throughout the world gathered to venerate the Cross of the Lord. As I was watching the people here coming forward, I was keenly aware of the problems that many of them faced. This lady was sick, that man just buried his son, this child barely survived a deep problem. Many were dealing with job loss, or the fear of losing their homes. It occurred to me that every person who came up had concerns. And still they processed up the aisle to venerate the cross. Every person trusted in the Lord to guide her or his life. All of us, devoted to Jesus Christ, are drawn to the Cross of the Lord.
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A chronology of the passion and death of Jesus
The events of last twenty-four hours of our Savior’s life can be a bit confusing to fit into a chronology. No single gospel relates all that happened, and (what is more difficult) some of the gospels seem to contain points of contradiction.

Here, I will set forth a simple chronology of the events from the Last Supper through Christ’s burial. But first, we will show the Catholic tradition regarding the question of whether Holy Thursday or Good Friday was the feast of Passover.
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Where is Jesus after he Dies?
Where is Christ after he dies on Friday afternoon and before he rises on Easter Sunday? Both Scripture and Tradition answer this question. Consider the following from a Second Century Sermon and also a mediation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
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Easter Changes Everything
Christmas occupies such a large part of the Christian imagination that the absolute supremacy of Easter as the greatest of Christian feasts may get obscured at times. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, an Italian biblical scholar, suggests that we might begin to appreciate how Easter changed everything—and gave the birth of Jesus at Christmas its significance—by reflecting on the story of Jesus purifying the Jerusalem Temple, at the beginning of John’s Gospel.
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Son Rise (John 20:1-10)
John 20:1-10: It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’ So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.
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Humility and Suffering
Holy Week is a week where we are reminded of the inextricable link between humility and suffering. Christ’s passion radically embodies the surrendering of self-will to God’s-will, the hurt of unjust humiliation and the willingness to embrace the suffering of the cross.
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Jesus Is Not a Means, and Our Experience Is Not the End
This weekend, I had the privilege of going to Palm Sunday Mass at Holy Rosary parish in Houston. It’s one of those places where the presence of the Holy Spirit just about blows you backward as soon as you walk in the door. The building is almost 100 years old, and stepping inside feels like you’re being transported into another time. The priests’ love of the Eucharist is evident in their slightest motions as they move through the Mass. The huge wooded crucifix looms behind the altar, an omnipresent reminder of why we’re here. I’ve been to Mass there before, and I almost always have a powerful visceral experience. More than once I’ve found myself wiping tears out of my eyes, overwhelmed at the grandeur of what I was witnessing. But not this weekend.
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Hope: When A Loved One Dies in Sin
My mother died at age 27. She left a grieving husband and three little children: myself, age six, and my younger sister and brother, ages four and two, respectively. I remember my mother well, her death from pneumonia the day after Christmas 1934, and her funeral, the first I ever attended. I remember too my father telling me, a few days after we had buried her: “We must still pray for Mummy. She is with God. He is looking after her, and our prayers can help her.” That made sense to me when I was only six. It makes sense to me still. I never celebrate Mass without praying for my dear mother by name—and now for many other loved ones who have gone home to God in the seven decades since her death.
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Are We to Take the Bible “Literally”?
Dr. Peter Enns, an Evangelical blogger and Affiliate Processor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, has started an interesting conversation on the appropriate way to analyze and understand Genesis 1-3 specifically, and the Bible more generally. I wanted to wade into this controversy, because I think Enns shows us the need for solid Biblical hermeneutics, and in turn, the need for the Church.
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Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the History of Holy Week
Holy Week is the richest span of liturgical tradition in the Catholic Church. While we remember the suffering of Christ, let’s take a look at some of the history that makes the time leading up to Holy Week such a rich part of our tradition.
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Walking the Line
No. I’m not thinking about Johnny Cash today. I’m thinking about tombs. And waiting. And time set apart.

I’m thinking about Paul, hanging out in Damascus after the scales fell from his eyes. I’m thinking about Peter, sitting in the Upper Room, contemplating his three-fold denial. I’m thinking about Jesus, descending into Hell, awaiting Resurrection.

I’m thinking about these things because, well, that’s what we Catholics do this time of year. We stop the ordinary business of life, look at ourselves, and ask, “Where have I fallen short? How is my life not imaging the life of the man on the cross?”
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How I Found Joy in Sorrow and Pain
The Cross is the great paradox of Christianity. More than a few people have asked me over the years why the Catholic Church focuses so prominently and persistently on the Crucifix. One inquirer even suggested that the Crucifix hanging above the Altar is too intense a reminder of the sorrow in the world and that she would never join a church that displayed a sign of such cruel violence.
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On Being Willing to Die With Christ. A Holy Week Meditation for Increasingly Hostile Times
|The Gospel from Monday of Holy Week presented an interesting a challenging picture for those of us who wish to be disciples of the Lord. For a brief moment the focus shifts to Lazarus. Lets consider the text and ask some questions of our selves:
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Pro-Life is Easy, Pro-Marriage is Hard
Culturally, it’s getting easier for people to be pro-life. There are four key reasons for this:

(*While being pro-life includes many things, here I’m mostly referring to life in the womb.)

1) The science: Science has clearly confirmed that a new, individual, self-directing human life is created at the moment of fertilization (i.e. conception). There is no point after that where this life magically becomes human or deserves to live, etc. It’s quite obviously a precious human life from that first moment. Just add food, water and proper shelter and eventually you get a bigger human being. People increasingly get that. And it takes really convoluted, non-rational squirming to try and say otherwise.
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The Dark Gulf Before Us
In March of 1938, when the naïve among his contemporaries still thought they might cut a deal with the National Socialists, Winston Churchill saw his country “descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf.” A gulf beckons today, and no amount of forced optimism or self-conscious jollity will stop the descent to its shadows. There is nothing inevitable about what lies ahead, but providence will overcome fatalism only if people absorb what Pope Benedict XVI said last January to a group of American bishop on their “ad limina” visit: “…it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.”
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The Measure of the World
A great number of men live and die without reflecting at all upon the state of things in which they find themselves. They take things as they come, and follow their inclinations as far as they have the opportunity. They are guided mainly by pleasure and pain, not by reason, principle, or conscience; and they do not attempt to interpret this world, to determine what it means, or to reduce what they see and feel to system. But when persons, either from thoughtfulness of mind, or from intellectual activity, begin to contemplate the visible state of things into which they are born, then forthwith they find it a maze and a perplexity. . . .Why it is, and what it is to issue in, and how it is what it is, and how we come to be introduced into it, and what is our destiny, are all mysteries.
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The Value of Conscience
The memory still stings: there I was, age 7, the veteran of a splendidly moving and memorable first holy Communion and graced with an oddball love of the Sacrament of Confession in all of its velvet-curtained-sliding-screen ambiance, planning to steal a toy “ladies fan” from a candy store, simply to see if I could.
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12 Catholic Blogs Worth Your Time
Listers, the following collection of blogs represents the best Catholic voices online. The list is not necessarily in a strict order. If you think there is a blog(s) that should be featured on St. Peter’s List please do not hesitate to name and link the blog in the comment box and we’ll see what we can do. Also, please note this is a list of blogs – and even though SPL has included some that stretch the limits of a blog, other excellent news sites like New Advent and Life Site News will be featured elsewhere. SPL did not list itself, but you can find more lists from us on Twitter and Facebook.
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SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Loud Cry

Homilist: 
Fr. Phil Bloom

Palm Sunday
April 1, 2012

Bottom line: On the cross Jesus took our evil on his shoulders, he bore the full consequences of sin, including the sense of abandonment – separation from God. But in the end he gave a loud cry – a shout of victory.

Welcome to Holy Week. Today we received a palm branch – in memory of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Then, in terrible contrast, we heard about the betrayal of Jesus, his humiliation by public scourging and then…the cross.

Those standing near the cross heard these words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That plea affected them so deeply that they remembered the words in Jesus’ own language, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabacthani?” Christians throughout the centuries have puzzled about these words: How could Jesus – who is God – feel abandoned by God? Dietrich Bonhoeffer – a Christian pastor imprisoned and executed by the Nazis – wrote about the reality of Jesus’ desolation on the cross.* Jesus took upon himself our sins and he experienced the worst consequence of sin: separation from God.

When we feel desolate, abandoned, defeated – when we wonder where God is – that is the moment to come to Jesus, come to the cross.

When we come to Jesus, feeling abandoned, something unexpected happens. After expressing abandonment, we hear in the Gospel that “Jesus gave a loud cry.” Many Scripture scholars see this as a cry of triumph. William Barclay points out that St. John’s Gospel (as we will hear this Friday) Jesus cries out, “It is finished.” In English three words – “It is finished” – but in Greek one word, “Finished!” Jesus’ loud cry is a shout of victory.**

At the beginning of Mass, you received a victory symbol – the palm branch. Please take home the blessed palm. Place it behind a crucifix as a sign that if we embrace the cross we will triumph – not because our own strength and cleverness – but because of Jesus’ Resurrection.

Next weekend we begin a fifty day celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection. I especially invite you to the Easter Vigil. I also encourage you to attend the Holy Thursday Mass of the Last Supper and the Good Friday veneration of the Cross.

On the cross Jesus took our evil on his shoulders, he bore the full consequences of sin, including the sense of abandonment – separation from God. But in the end he gave a loud cry – a shout of victory. Amen.

************

*For a fresh look at Bonhoeffer’s life, his years in Jim Crow America and Nazi Germany – and his struggle for soul the Chistianity in Europe, I recommend Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

**See The Gospel of Mark (New Daily Study Bible) by William Barclay

http://www.parishworld.net/con_KnowingOurFaith.cfm?contentUUID=5F87BC28-2219-2361-AC2034B365BEC9E2|201203

SaintJohnChurchMiddletown.com

A Digest of Articles from Catholic Blogs and Websites
April 1, 2012

Palm Sunday: The Victory of Humility
Palm Sunday — When a conquering hero of the ancient world rode into town in triumph, it was in a regal chariot or on the back of a stately stallion. Legions of soldiers accompanied him in the victory procession. Triumphal arches, festooned with relief sculptures, were often erected to immortalize his valiant victory.

After driving out demons, healing the sick, and raising the dead, it was time for the King of Kings to enter the Holy City. But to do so, he rode not on the back of a warhorse, but a donkey. His companions accompanied him brandishing not swords, but palm branches. The monument to his victory, erected a week later, was not an arch, but a crucifix.
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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Emotions or Sacrificial Love?

A number of years ago, we witnessed the jubilant reaction of the people of Iraq at the fall of the Hassan regime. Perhaps you might remember that many of the people who were celebrating were waving palm branches. This ancient form of expressing joy has survived the ages. However, you might also remember that within a day, joy was replaced by looting and anarchy. The waving of palms was merely an emotional expression. Many of the people were not then, and many still are not now ready to commit to a stable way of life. That demands personal sacrifice.
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Five Practical Ways to Pray with Mary
During Pope Benedict XVI’s General Audience on March 14 about praying with Mary, he pointed out times in Mary’s life that were pivotal to salvation history and in which she demonstrated particular aspects of prayer. When I read the Pope’s words, I was inspired to take them a step further and to explore ways in which his insights into the Blessed Mother’s prayer life could be incorporated on a practical level into our hectic daily lives.
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St. Francis de Sales: Hearing the Word of God
A word is accepted or rejected for three reasons: because of the person who speaks it, because of the word that is spoken, because of those who hear it. For this word to be honored and accepted, the one who is speaking it must be a good man, a virtuous man, one worthy of being believed. Otherwise, rather than being accepted, it will be rejected, despised. Further, what is said must be good and true. Finally, those who hear it must be good, prepared to receive it; if not, it will be neither accepted, honored, nor kept.
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Questions Answered: Does Hell Exist? And, Civil Law vs. Moral Law
Question: I heard that, recently, some Christian theologians are denying the existence of hell? Can you tell me if we must believe in hell?

Answer: The existence of hell is de fide from the Athanasian Creed, which teaches: “But those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.” This is fully ratified in the Dogmatic Constitution, Benedictus Deus. In this document, Benedict XII meant to resolve eschatological issues: “According to God’s general ordinance, the souls of those who die in a personal grievous sin, descend immediately into hell, where they will be tormented by the pains of hell.”
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Resurrection Series – Part 3 – Is the Bible Just a Myth?
Throughout this week I’m blogging on the most climactic event in all of history: the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Is it true? Did the Bible get it right? Are there other plausible alternatives? Wading through Flannery O’Conner, myth-spinning fishermen, Homer’s Iliad, legendary body-snatchers, a crucified Judas, the Battle of Waterloo, and hallucinating ghost-whisperers, I’ll seek to convince you, before Holy Week, that the Resurrection is not just a good story but a literal, historical reality.
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7 Connections Between the Womb and the Tomb
Usually falling on March 25th, 9 months before Christmas Day, the Solemnity of the Annunciation was moved this year to March 26th, which gave a great many people the opportunity to take part in the Total Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary, ending today. It’s fitting that we should consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary during Lent, but in all truth, on this solemnity, we cannot help but look toward Christ’s Passion and Death.
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God’s Game Plan (John 3:16-21)
John 3:16-21: ‘Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’
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5 Steps to Help Catholics Stop Failing at Online Activism (and Start Winning)
You read me right: Catholics are failing at online activism.

Sure, if you’re reading this, you probably know a heck of a lot more than your average Catholic about online activism, but still, when it comes to this subject in general, we Catholics are way behind.

The reason Catholics need to start winning at online activism isn’t about numbers on a scoreboard. Social media activism is a new major force which influences the outcome of battles we care about.
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Why Catholics make the sign of the cross
I used to make the sign of the cross casually as a nice gesture for beginning and ending my prayers. But about a decade ago, probably nudged by the Holy Spirit, I took it more seriously.

I began to sign myself more frequently with faith and reverence. I did not think much about it, but after a year I noticed that I seemed to be doing measurably better in my Christian life. I was praying with more passion, resisting my bad inclinations somewhat more effectively, and relating to others more kindly.
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Kindness Can Kill if Love is Unwilling to Wound
We live in a reductionist culture that has tended to reduce love to kindness. The results are often quite problematic as we shall see.

Kindness is a very great thing and has an important place in our relationships. Kindness is evidenced by goodness and charitable behavior, a pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others.

According to Aristotle, kindness is an emotion manifesting itself by the desire to help somebody in need, without expecting anything in return. Peter Kreeft defines kindness as “sympathy, with the desire to relieve another’s suffering.”
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“It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over:” My Mother’s Deathbed Conversion
“Never, ever, ever give up.” Thus said Winston Churchill in October 1941, in the shortest of his speeches. As the WW II statesman applied this maxim famously to political life, so too might we apply the principle of perseverance to our personal lives when the warfare is spiritual in form.

Perseverance works in tandem with the cardinal virtue of fortitude as we “fight the good fight” to the finish, whatever situation we may face. Even within the family, perseverance is essential. So it proved to be in the case of my dying mother, more than a dozen years ago.
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Fr. Higgins: The Man I Saw Brought Back to Life
Who doesn’t enjoy a good BBQ with friends? When I was asked to a young couple’s home for a Young Adult Ministry Home Mass and BBQ I packed my Mass kit and off I went. I arrived about 6:00 pm with a hearty appetite and was greeted by about 15 young people. Then the phone rang and everything changed. I had to drive about 10 miles to a hospital where there was an emergency call.
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‘My wife, she had an abortion here last Friday’
Much attention in a 40 Days for Life campaign is on the mother and her unborn child — and saving the life of the baby scheduled to be aborted. But each of those children has a father — someone who is legally in no man’s land. He has no rights — and often no influence.

Steve, the 40 Days for Life coordinator in Glendale, California, tells the story of one such man — a guy he refers to as “Bill.”
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When Will Christ Come? Some Basics of Catholic Eschatology
In certain Protestant circles (not all), especially among the Evangelicals there is a strong and often vivid preoccupation with signs of the Second Coming of Christ. Many of the notions that get expressed are either erroneous, or extreme. Some of these erroneous notions are rooted in a misunderstanding of the various Scriptural genres. Some are rooted in reading certain Scriptures in isolation from the wider context of the whole of Scripture. And some are rooted in reading one text, and disregarding other texts that balance it.
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Catholicism and Suffering
When a Catholic goes into a Protestant church, he will often notice a cross or crosses, but usually without a corpus. Catholic churches almost always have a crucifix; Orthodox churches also, but sometimes two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional. Some Catholic churches are noted for very graphic depictions of the wounds and suffering features of Christ crucified. This may give us an indication of the uniquely Catholic perspective on suffering.
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How I Memorized My Favorite Prayer in Sixty Seconds
I recently made a commitment to say the Morning Offering every day. I’d been having trouble making time for longer prayer sessions, so I figured that the least I could do would be to start each morning with that short prayer, which says simply:
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Mystery solved? Turin Shroud linked to Resurrection of Christ
For centuries the Turin Shroud, regarded by some as the burial cloth of Jesus, by others as the most elaborate hoax in history, has inspired extraordinary and conflicting passions. Popes, princes and paupers have for 700 years been making pilgrimages the length of Europe to stand in its presence while scientists have dedicated their whole working lives to trying to explain rationally how the ghostly image on the cloth, even more striking when seen as a photographic negative, and matching in every last detail the crucifixion narrative, could have been created. And still a final, commonly agreed answer remains elusive, despite carbon-dating in 1988 having pronounced it a forgery.
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A Dominican and a Jesuit Walk Into a Bar…. 4 Catholic Jokes
1. Cast the First Stone…

Jesus was walking along one day, when He came upon a group of people surrounding a lady of ill repute. It was obvious that the crowd was preparing to stone her, so Jesus made His now-famous statement, “Let the person who has no sin cast the first stone.”

The crowd was shamed and one by one began to turn away. All of a sudden, a lovely little woman made her way through the crowd. Finally getting to the front, she tossed a pebble towards the woman.

Jesus looks over and says, “I really hate it when you do that, Mom.”
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