Facing Our Immortality

Sr.Anne Marie Walsh’s Zoom Meeting

Please join us Time: Oct 9, 2023 06:30 PM Mountain Time/7:30 Central Time

https://zoom.us/j/92645572023?pwd=S2Q2dHdHUytwVnRuSGROUnhza1A3UT09

Meeting ID: 926 4557 2023 Passcode: 084331

Opening Prayer: The Memorare

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. 

Amen

An Examination of Love

One of the benefits of regularly examining our conscience is to make us more sensitive to God and His ways so that we do not become lax in identifying areas of sin and weakness in our lives. Sin always affects our intimacy with God. It spiritually (and psychologically) distances us from God and inclines us to make light of what He requires or asks us to do. The examination of conscience, though, is not just about sin. It’s also about self-knowledge in the area of our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It allows us to look over the day and see where we were mindful of God and, at the same time, where we lost His presence amid our normal activities and experiences. We learn, often on a personal level, about what pleases God and what displeases Him.  This helps us progress in prayer and our striving for holiness. If you sincerely love God, you want to know what draws Him but also what pushes Him away.

Many of us earnestly desire to become more united and conformed to Christ, to love God more and more. But we don’t always know exactly what that means or what it looks like.  To love someone is often said to mean that we will the good for that person.  This means that regardless of feelings, we can love even our enemies or those who have hurt us deeply by willing their sanctification and salvation.  But obviously, this definition doesn’t help us when it comes to loving God because God is pure goodness in Himself.  We cannot will anything for Him that He does not already have.  So, our love for Him must be expressed differently. 

Jesus shows us two primary ways.  1. We can love what God loves. 2. We can seek to please Him in all things, just as people who love each other do.  Jesus expresses His love for the Father this way:  “I love the Father…I do just as the Father has commanded me, “ Jn 14:31  and, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.”  Jn 35:34. This is what feeds the soul of Jesus, and it is what should feed our own souls as well.

We can ask ourselves first:  What does God love?  What does the Father love most?  Because I want to love that too!

The answer is that the Father loves His Son the most.  St. John of the Cross says that God is offended when we ask for certain gifts (perhaps prophecy or healing or word of knowledge) as though there is anything He has held back from us.  He has given us the fullness of all He has to give in giving us His only begotten Son.  There is nothing more than that.

So then, to answer how we please God becomes easy. We please Him by loving Jesus, listening to Him, and becoming more and more like Jesus in our own unique way.  (Remember, the saints all manifest the holiness of God, but they are also very different from each other, simply one facet in the multi-faceted reflection of Christ, present and at work in the world in His Mystical Body.)  We can never plumb the depths of the riches of Christ!  Even after the 117 billion people who have lived on the face of the earth since time began and who each were called to live out some aspect of Christ in their lives (at least by potential), we have barely scratched the surface.

And so, what pleases the Father most?  Anything or anyone that resembles His Beloved Son; anyone that becomes like Him and united to Him.

Children often grasp this quite easily because their love is not yet cautious, suspicious, or calculating.  As one young child observed: “When you pray, God the Father looks into your heart to see if His Son is there.”  This is the starting point for real intimacy with God.  Look at your own interior life.  What does the Father see when He looks in your heart?  That will tell you where you are and where you need to go. 

Questions for silent reflection:

1.  What does doing the will of the Father look like in your life?

2.  Our relationship with God, with the three Divine Persons, is very personal and unique.  No two relationships are alike.  What have you found is pleasing to the Father in your everyday walk with Him?

3.  What are some of the aspects of Christ that attract you?

4.  What reality of Christ would you like to be able to live out more deeply?

Please join us for our upcoming session with Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT. It takes place Monday 06/12/23 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm MDT. Please click the link below for automatic entry. God Bless you.

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Opening Prayer: The Memorare

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. 

Amen

Becoming True Influencers

“Your beliefs don’t make you a good person. Your behavior does.” This is a meme that floats around Facebook every so often, but the idea has been around from the beginning of time. It’s been noted that the devil believes in God but is no better off for it. Just as being in the presence of Jesus, as the Pharisees often were, did not benefit them much either because of their obstinacy and hardness of heart.

We often find this division in our own souls. We may sincerely believe something and yet keep it sectioned off somewhere in our minds where it has no real influence over our everyday life or behavior. Perhaps we say we believe things, especially regarding our faith because we have some vague notion that we are supposed to believe those things. Yet they don’t influence our actions as they should.

Most of us would never want to be an occasion of sin for someone else. Yet we often are, if not by intent, then by carelessness and lack of awareness. This becomes, then, something to consider carefully in our own lives.  

A few examples can illustrate this. In our religious community, one unwritten rule from our Founder is that we don’t drink alcohol. This is not because alcohol in and of itself is evil or sinful. But it is because we don’t want to be a source of temptation to those brothers and sisters who have a weakness in this area. Even before this, because alcoholism is generationally prevalent in my family, we had to come to the point where we agreed that there would be no alcohol at family gatherings. There was a lot of resistance to this at first. Why should we suffer because someone else can’t stop once they start? Yet the overreaction missed the point that if we can’t come together and enjoy one another for a few hours without alcohol, we may have a problem also.  

This principle applies as well to the whole area of modesty. In this, we are sadly ruled all too often by the world’s norms and not by genuine concern for our own dignity and the dignity of others. Modesty means behaving in a way that does not become a source of temptation to others. This is why we cover or veil ourselves in attractive or tasteful ways but in ways that are not suggestive or seductive. We protect ourselves this way from the lustful eyes of others and the sinful overreaching that too much visible flesh can entice them into. If we want people to see our real person, we don’t blind them with too much physicality, which they won’t get past to the more essential things. At the same time, we dampen the possible temptation that would come from dressing more provocatively. Telling the Lord, we just wanted to be attractive will not hold much weight in the light of the destruction that sin brings with it, even if it wasn’t directly our own sin.

A third example has to do with anger. How many potential sins we can cause when we over-indulge our anger? Anger is a contagious emotion. If we are not careful, we can incite anger in others, especially those who generally sympathize with us anyway. We can cause all sorts of gossiping, rash judgment, detraction, reputation destruction, and numerous other violations of charity.  

Imagine being held accountable for all the sins we have committed (and remember, Confession permanently wipes them away) but also for the sins we have caused others to commit. These are areas that need to be examined; otherwise, we risk, as the Chinese proverb says, “burning false incense before a True God.”

There is no getting around the fact that we influence others for better or worse. And today, being an “influencer” has become a prize designation. In an age where influencers push worldly trends, our counter-witness must be as influencers that point immortal souls beyond this world to the eternity that awaits them. This is to fulfill the real purpose of influence while preserving us from the guilt of causing sin in others.

Questions for silent reflection:

1. What are some ways you have found to be a positive influence in other people’s lives.

2. Who has had the greatest influence in your life (apart from Jesus). 

3. What areas today need a Christian influence and what would that look like?

4. What qualities or characteristics do you think make someone influential?

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Please join us for our upcoming session with Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT. It takes place Monday 04/17/23 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm MDT. Please click the link below for automatic entry. God Bless you.

Click on Zoom: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/4537185699?pwd=emRVOEZwMTY1eGN1bzYrU2VldWhiZz09

Opening Prayer: The Memorare

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. 

Amen

Forgotten Intercessors

Perhaps one of the world’s most frequently found sufferings is the grief that comes with miscarriage and/or the death of a young child. Family and friends who could be strong supports often overlook the profound impact the loss of a child has because they are uncomfortable and don’t know what to say, or saints preserve us because they don’t think it’s any big deal. “You can always have another” is like saying, “If your spouse dies, no big deal. You can always find someone else.” This is not the language of love nor of respect for the dignity of another living soul, a person who becomes present at the moment of conception.

St. Zelie Martin, (St. Therese’s mother) who lost 4 little ones, recounted:  “Many persons said to me: ‘It would have been better for you if you had never had them.’ I could not bear that kind of talk. I do not think that the sorrows and the troubles endured could possibly be compared with the eternal happiness of my children with God. Besides, they are not lost to me forever; life is short and filled with crosses, and we shall find them again in Heaven.”

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a Doctor of the Church, said in response to parents asking about the fate of their miscarried child: 

“Your faith spoke for this child. Baptism for this child was only delayed by time. Your faith suffices. The waters of your womb – were they not the waters of life for this child? Look at your tears. Are they not like the waters of Baptism? Do not fear this. God’s ability to love is greater than our fears. Surrender everything to God.” 

Mother Angelica’s prayer is also a poignant reminder of the personal grief parents wrestle with. The perspective of God here is, at the same time, tremendously consoling. 

“My Lord, my baby is dead! 

Why, my Lord—dare I ask why? He will not hear the whisper of the wind or see the beauty of its parents’ face—he will not see the beauty of Your creation or the flame of a sunrise. Why, my Lord?” 

“Why, My child—I will tell you why. 

You see, the child lives. Instead of the wind, he hears the sound of angels singing before My throne. Instead of the beauty that passes, he sees everlasting Beauty—he sees My face. He was created and lived a short time, so the image of his parents imprinted on his face may stand before Me as their personal intercessor. He knows secrets of heaven unknown to men on earth. He laughs with a special joy that only the innocent possess. My ways are not the ways of man. I create for My Kingdom, and each creature fills a place in that Kingdom that could not be filled by another. He was created for My joy and his parents’ merits. He has never seen pain or sin. He has never felt hunger or pain. I breathed a soul into a seed, made it grow, and called it forth.” 

I thank You for the life that began for so short a time to enjoy so long an eternity. 

-Mother M. Angelica 

St. Therese of Lisieux understood this well. She never met the 4 siblings who died before she was born. Yet she was very conscious of them and prayed for their help when she felt she needed divine assistance. Who knows if her siblings’ prayers before God’s throne didn’t bring down the graces of sanctity that saw St. Therese, St. Zelie and St. Louis (St. Therese’s father) reach a heroic holiness recognized by the official canonization of the Church?

Our greatest joy will be to see God face-to-face in eternal beatitude. And yet, we may anticipate the many secondary joys we will experience, not the least of which will be the meeting, face to face, with our loved ones and with the children that went on ahead and who will perhaps be the ones to welcome us home when our time comes!  May all the Holy Innocents intercede for us and for the salvation of the world!

Mary, Queen, and Mother of us all, pray for us!

Questions for silent reflection.

1. Do you have any “forgotten” intercessors in your own family?

2. Who do you anticipate seeing in heaven? Besides the Most Holy Trinity and family, who would you like to encounter once you enter into eternity?

3. Every time we participate in the celebration of the Eucharist we are in the presence of the whole Heavenly court. Though we don’t see it, our loved ones, the angels and saints, Mary and our Triune God are present. How can we become more connected in the communion of saints, with our “brothers and sisters” (both literal and figurative) who have gone before us?

4. What is your deepest desire for eternal life? If you could arrange the details of your “homecoming” who would you like present?

Happy Easter to you!

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/scriptures-and-art-easter-2023-nej4yx8j

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Opening Prayer: The Memorare

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen

A Taste of Heaven/Healing the Senses

During Lent, we humbly acknowledge that we are broken and need deep healing. The Church gives us remedies to apply with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, concrete exercises of Jesus’ directive to deny ourselves, pick our Cross, and follow Him.

One of the critical focuses in Lent is on the proper use of our senses. We first perceive reality through our senses, through seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing. This then demands a decision regarding how we want to respond to that information. The catechism (#319) says: God created the world to SHOW FORTH AND COMMUNICATE HIS GLORY. That his creatures should share in his truth, goodness and beauty – this is the glory for which God created them.

Everything that comes to us through the senses then should reveal something about the mystery of God and His creation. In their broken state, the senses do not move at this level. Nor do they do well in a culture that seeks to constantly overstimulate them with imagery both good and bad, with music, noise, incessant babble, touch focused on one kind of pleasure only, fragrances and aromas engineered to be temptations, and an infinite variety of foods and drinks which encourage gluttony and intemperance.

Here’s what should happen when our senses operate the way they’re supposed to. They should serve the spirit in us and lift us to God and thoughts of God. When we are integrated (more and more healed, holy), our senses will move us so that when we see beautiful things:  sunsets, grand mountains, beautiful people, we will recognize God’s love made visible. When we hear beautiful sounds, waves lapping the beach, birds singing, a baby laughing, we will be able to recognize God’s love made audible in those sounds. When we experience the healing or life-giving touch of another, we will recognize God’s love made tangible. When God delights our sense of taste with one of the magnificent foods he’s provided for us, we can go beyond it to experience God’s love made edible. And in the rich aromas and beautiful smells of the created world, we would experience the fragrance of God’s love. 

This comes from the gradual divinization of our senses through prayer, mortification, and the passive purifications God sends to us. St. Francis is an example of this. He understood the mysteries of creation at such a deep level he could even communicate with the animals. St. Anthony is also remembered for preaching to the fish and the birds when people would not listen to him. Their radical practice of mortification and penitential disciplines helped to reform and reset their desires and attractions toward sin and selfishness and redirect them to the greatest good. It enabled them at the same time to penetrate into the deeper mysteries of creation and God’s goodness because their senses did not enslave them to immediate pleasure.

Jesus tells us that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We really do desire more. But when the senses become intoxicated with the earthly, they fail to rise above to the source of that delight. When we practice denying them their pleasures and don’t allow them to indulge themselves as they are inclined to do, our senses normalize over time and become more spiritual and more robust.

A scene from The Wizard of Oz captures this whole dynamic well. As Dorothy and her companions approach the Emerald City, they must walk through a beautiful field of poppies. The wicked witch has poisoned the flowers to drug Dorothy and make her fall asleep indefinitely so that she never arrives at the eternal city.   We, too, are presented with innumerable temptations of the senses for the same reason. We can become drugged by sensory pleasures and, in a very real sense, unable to move forward. It is no accident that the original temptation involved all the senses.  

Interestingly, only the dew of grace (in this case, an out-of-season snow sent by the good witch) is able to rouse Dorothy and the cowardly lion, who also ends up fast asleep. It is the same for us. The grace offered to us during this time has potent capabilities to rouse us from our spiritual torpor, heal our soul-sicknesses, and inspire us to overcome ourselves so we can reach the eternal city God has prepared for those who love Him! Our senses can aid us greatly, but only once they are restored to their original purposes.

Questions for silent reflection:

1.    The purpose of mortification is said to sharpen the heart’s desires and to deepen the longing for God. Have you experienced the special graces that come from mortification or spiritual disciplines or suffering in general?  

2.    Often our illnesses and/or treatments affect our physical senses in various ways. Do you think there is a difference between mortification and the things we suffer when we’re sick?  Or is the end result the same for both? 

3.    Have you had any special experiences of the iconic?  Art, music, architecture, etc., is considered iconic when it lifts you through itself and past itself to God or a consideration of God.

4.    Asking God to open the eyes of our hearts, to open our ears that we may hear Him, to make us instruments of His loving touch and care and love to others, often means consciously trying to redirect our focus.  At the level of our senses, what are some of the distractions that keep you from using your senses in a more fruitful way?

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Happy New Year! We pray that 2023 is filled with many joyful blessings for you and your loved ones. Please join us Monday 01/09/23 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm MST (8:30 pm to 10:00 pm EST).

Click on Zoom: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/4537185699?pwd=emRVOEZwMTY1eGN1bzYrU2VldWhiZz09

Opening Prayer: The Memorare

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen

The Illusion Of Easy Happiness

A recent article by Taylor Penley reported on members of Generation Z (born between the late 1990s and 2010 and also known as zoomers) reacting to the recent Dobbs Decision from the Supreme Court, which sent the issue of abortion and abortion restrictions back to the individual states. A young University of South Dakota junior, Lexi McKee-Hemenway, said, “I want to leave the country [after graduating].” I have a lot of mixed feelings: rage, fear, disappointment… Most of all, though, I have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that this is the United States now …. It’s a really scary time to live here,” she said.  She probably does not realize that every country in the world, except 2, has more restrictions on abortion than we do. We are not like Sudan and Afghanistan, but rather we are like Russia and China, with our current laws allowing abortion for any reason, up until birth.

Some respondents in the article indicated they would move to other states where abortion was accessible without restrictions. Though Generation Z seems to have fewer unwanted pregnancies and alcohol use and is more concerned with doing well in school and finding good jobs, they are also the first generation to grow up with the internet and digital technology from the time they were little. And they have never known a time when abortion wasn’t legal.

Pope St. John Paul II, speaking to young people, said: “You, dear young people, be brave and free! Do not let yourselves be taken in by the deceptive mirages of an easy happiness. Follow the way of Christ: he is demanding, certainly, but he alone can help you to savor the full meaning of life and enjoy peace of heart.”

It is probably true that almost no one would say that they want the right to kill their babies. They don’t usually speak of abortion that way, even when they call it a right and couch it in health care terms for the mother (certainly not the baby.). But they are saying they want the right to be sexually active without responsibility, responsibility to their partner, and the child they may conceive together. And they are deceived into believing they cannot be happy without this. Rights have become conflated with easy happiness even though for the last 50 years of “legalized” abortion, people have become less happy and more confused. They discover the hard way there is no such thing as free love. “Rights” do not guarantee happiness. And rights without responsibility do not elevate “free” sexual expression to any kind of fulfilling experience. This is a deception that, unfortunately, can lead in the opposite direction to bondages, brokenness, mental health issues, and even deeper unhappiness.

Generation Z can hardly be blamed for its resistance to religion and attachment to ideas that have been fed to them since they were children. They have been wounded by the lies they have been fed. Yet, God is at work with them in their struggles to find the truth. If you are able to view the reactions of a group of “zoomers” as they watch the series “The Chosen,” you see that they have grown up living all the effects of a broken culture that focuses on rights over gifts and responsibilities. Out of 9 in the group, hardly one comes from a stable family. Several have suffered abuse, some from Church elders, and a number have genuine identity and mental health issues and struggles. Yet the group was open, resilient, and so ready to let Jesus touch them where they had resisted before. Looking for the key to happiness and fulfillment and perhaps discovering for the first time that Jesus is the One who can and wants to give it to us is the breakthrough we all need to make.

Questions for silent reflection:

1. In the midst of your own suffering, do you believe that Jesus wants to make you happy? How do you reconcile that with the sufferings and crosses that come into your life?

2. “The Chosen” presents a portrayal of Christ that emphasizes His humanity while also depicting the miracles He worked in exercising His Divinity. The series has been wildly popular. Why do you think people today are finding healing in this kind of portrayal of Jesus?

3. Pope St. John Paul II once said that the youth of today do not need extra penances in their lives because they have a lot of moral and spiritual suffering already from the breakdown of family and the dehumanizing trends in the culture. What other kinds of suffering particularly mark the world we live in and how can we help each other through them?

4. One of the greatest sufferings in the world today is rejection, isolation and loneliness. What do you see as some of the roots to this and how can you witness in hope to God’s intentions for real relationships with and among us?

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