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Session 61: Finding Our True Selves

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FACING OUR IMMORTALITY Sr.AnneMarie Walsh is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Finding Our True Selves

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/6516969698?pwd=WWQ4dndGQnVyTGx6SW1Hc0RrMjM3UT09

Meeting ID: 651 696 9698/Passcode: 246122

FINDING OUR TRUE SELVES

Blessed Carlo Acutis, the young Catholic, Italian website designer who died of Leukemia at 15 years of age while living a holy life in the modern world, observed that “All people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.” This is a problem if we understand that God has a master plan for our happiness but that many people do not, knowingly or unknowingly, choose to follow it.  

Blessed Carlo understood this.  His plan for life was to stay close to Jesus and allow Jesus to unfold his life and its unique purpose.  It wasn’t a long life, but it was one in which he could say:  “…in eternal life, something extraordinary awaits us.”  “I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.”  He also understood that to know himself, the best way was to come to know Jesus more and more deeply in the Blessed Sacrament and that Jesus would then teach him about himself and lead him to heaven. 

So, how do we become fake versions or photocopies of someone else?  First, by following the natural interference our own egos cause in this area.  Second, by disconnecting from Christ.  Third, by listening to the enemy of our soul.  He devotes his time to isolating us from the Lord.  He is always about the work of trying to thwart God’s plan in every way he can.  The devil is a consummate meddler and he excels in deception, in offering us cheap knockoffs of the treasures and riches the Lord offers.  Counterfeits!

Everything that God does for us and wants for us, is targeted.  The evil one will offer us anything to keep us from following Our Lord because he knows how powerful a true believer is against his kingdom.  The Holy Spirit of God in the believer comes up against the kingdom of darkness and stands as an implacable wall against the reach of satan into our lives. There will be, nonetheless, incredible opposition and, at times, almost relentless attempts to divert and distract us.   

How often the roots of a problem can be traced back to the fall. The attempt to offer a cheap alternative to God’s gifts for the sake of deception is evident from the beginning.  Dan Burke (founder of the Avila Institute for Spirituality) points out that the original temptation is clearly worded in this kind of language. Regarding the forbidden fruit, the devil says to Adam and Eve, “Eat this, and you will become like God.”  We know this happens only in the Eucharist!  So, what is the devil doing?  He’s offering a false Eucharist!  Already in the Garden, his modus operandi is revealed, an MO that is powered by lies to divert and isolate the gullible and spiritually immature.  You can believe that for every gift, every mystery of God, there is something lifeless, deadly actually, that the devil promotes in its place. 

In Resurrection, Jesus makes all things new!  The Easter season is a perfect time to let the Lord divest us of all of our facades, our pretenses, our unreal aspirations, wherever they come from, and to allow Him to ground us in reality, the reality that our Risen Lord has given us everything He has to give and withholds nothing from us.  To fall prey to the temptations of the world, our own vanity, or the machinations of the evil one, simply means we are not rooted in reality but rather in fantasy and base appetites and desires that hold us back from the true glory God waits to bestow on us. 

This kind of self-examination requires the Lord’s help.  GK Chesterton wryly noted that going to Church every Sunday isn’t enough.  It doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.  We don’t readily recognize the subtle lies on which we have constructed parts of our lives.  Jesus needs to show us, just as He did the disciples in Resurrection, a concrete vision of a truly transformed life in Him.  That’s where we’re headed.  Jesus risen is what true life looks like! May your own life come to manifest his glory and proclaim His wonders eternally! Alleluia!  He is Risen!

  1. What kinds of illusions have you struggled with in the past? What are some of the ways you have experienced in your own life that God brings you to reality, to the truth?
  • As human beings, we have a strong tendency to imitate someone or something that engages us.  We find something compelling or inspiring in another and then try to imitate that.  Unfortunately, what engages us is often a mix of darkness and light, (think music and sports, superstars).  Why is it so necessary to train ourselves to imitate Jesus?  
  • What has the Lord taught you about yourself?  How have you come to know yourself, your real purpose, and the uniqueness or originality of your life? 
  • How would you discern what things in your life are pleasing or displeasing to God?  As Bl. Carlo Acutis implies, anything displeasing to God wastes our time and doesn’t make Him happy either.

Facing Our Immortality

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Please join us! We meet Monday, March 11 at 6:30 pm Mountain time; 7:30 pm Central time

Sr.AnneMarie Walsh is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: I Can Love Myself Better

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/6516969698?pwd=WWQ4dndGQnVyTGx6SW1Hc0RrMjM3UT09Meeting ID: 651 696 9698 Passcode: 246122

“I Can Love Myself Better?”

Certain things are just obviously ridiculous. It’s hard to fathom how anyone could believe them.  Yet today, there are so many examples of people believing patently false ideas that you wonder how they have become so estranged from the truth.

If someone showed up seriously promoting the idea that The Encyclopedia Britannica was created by the random explosion of a typewriter, most people would laugh.   Yet people readily accept things much more ludicrous than that.  Many people believe that there is nothing greater than ourselves, that the universe in all its infinite, delicate, micro and macro details just happened, and that one day we (or “Science”) will figure it out, but that basically, there is a human explanation for it.  God is not necessary.  Man is the real measure of things. 

This kind of atheism allows for the unbridled reign of the ego. It effectively relegates God to the realm of superstition and religious fundamentalism, which may be the main reason people embrace it.  It allows them to override the voice of their own conscience and its warnings so that they may pursue the attractive lie at the heart of our own history of existence, which is that if we disregard God and “eat” whatever appeals to us, we will be like gods ourselves. We will be happy.

Even believers succumb to this when shopping around for a Church that will allow them to live the life they want without complete adherence to the laws and counsels of the Gospel.  One woman openly admitted this when she left her more traditional Church to become Unitarian.  She explained that in the Unitarian Church, she was free to divorce without question, and it was not a big deal. 

From the beginning, the struggle has always been to subordinate our ego to God.  In its fallen nature, the ego is an incredibly tenacious force powered by a kind of arrogance and selfishness. It makes itself the reference point for everything, usurping God’s sovereignty and right to be honored and revered as the source of all that is good, beautiful, and true.  One of the ill effects of pride is blindness.  How often we lament over those who can’t see.  How can it be, we say, that they can’t see how ridiculous their position is?  Pride.  It takes away our vision.

So, how does God break through our obstinate and exaggerated self-sufficiency?  He humbles us.  Through sickness, failures, suffering of various kinds, and seemingly irresolvable challenges and difficulties.  He shows us over and over again that we have no power of our own, that we need Him, and that the control we convince ourselves we have is an illusion.  He doesn’t do this to dominate us or control us.  He does this to liberate us from our own arrogance and blindness so that He can take care of us and introduce us to the deeper mysteries of His love for us, the unveiling of our real identity in Him, and all that He so impatiently wants to share with us as Our Creator, Lord, and Savior.

It will be important to remember this during times of great suffering when God will seem to abandon us even as a people.  St Augustine reminds us that “…God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.”  Anything that increases our humility is efficacious for us because it brings us back to Truth.  And Truth is incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Everything aligns itself in the light of His gaze, which is why Eucharistic Adoration is so powerful.  You submit yourself to the greatest power on earth when you humbly, simply, and confidently come before the Lord and allow Him to love you as He so much desires.

The healing of the world will come when enough people return to God and allow His love to blossom in them.  At his core, the atheist basically does not want God to love him.  His attitude, like the popular song, is:  I can buy myself flowers…I can love me better than you can…”. That’s the miserable life we choose until and unless we give up the pretense and surrender to the One who truly can love us better than we can.

  1. Have you ever had the experience of God humbling you so He could free you from something in your life at the time?

2. Pope St. John Paul II pointed out several times that there is a connection between love and obedience.  We obey, yes, because of love.  But also, in obeying, we are actually allowing God to love us.  When we surrender to Him, when we comply with what He asks, He is able to increase His gifts in us; He is able to give us His gifts and to love us to the perfection of union with Himself.  Why do you think we struggle with obedience even when we know it’s good for us?

3. People talk about the rise of narcissism in the culture today.  In light of these considerations, what do you see as a major contributing factor?

4. What examples of pride and blindness do you see today?  This can be personal or from a broader scale.

Definitive Questions

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Sr. Anne Marie Walsh is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting for Facing Our Immortality online support group. Join Zoom Meeting: Please use the link below. Included are the meeting ID and password. Our meeting begins at 6:30 pm MT.

Topic: Definitive Questions

Time: Feb 12, 2024 07:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada); (NB) 6:30 pm Mountain Time

https://zoom.us/j/95448669169?pwd=eUZ0MzNTczZTcG1jVFZUSUNNOGM3Zz09

Meeting ID: 954 4866 9169

Passcode: 325195

Prayer: Remember O Most Gracious Virgin Mary…

Definitive Questions

The saints often cast our meeting with God at the end of our time on earth in terms of a life review in which certain questions are implicit.  How have you loved?  Have you kept my commandments?  What do you have to show for the gifts you’ve been given?

There is another plausible question that the Lord might ask us and which we may not be expecting: How many disciples have you made? 

Currently, there are about 1.3 billion Catholics in the world (which boasts an 8.1 billion population). If every Catholic devoted time to making at least one disciple, one convert, it would go a long way toward fulfilling the mandate Our Lord gave us to make disciples of the nations. Converts and reverts are often so fervent that they set off a momentum of interest, which in turn draws other people in.  So, your conversion of one person can often indirectly result in the conversion of many more.

Jesus laments that the harvest is plenty, and the laborers are few.  In other words, there is no reason to argue about how many are lost vs. saved because it ultimately becomes an indictment against ourselves.  So many need not be lost if we are doing our job as Catholics. 

Yet, evangelization is a word that scares the ordinary person because it is often misinterpreted.  Most people do not see themselves in the light of the common definition of a missionary.  Most people dismiss the concept as meant for “professionals,” priests, religious, etc.

However, in our Baptism, we are all called to go forth and make disciples.  So, it is something we need to take seriously.  One way to understand how we might proceed is to look at the early Church and learn how they understood this mandate and how they moved to fulfill it.

What becomes obvious in reading the Acts of the Apostles is that the early Church practiced evangelism in several different ways.  The Apostles went out to the corners of the earth and founded communities of disciples whom they formed and equipped for ongoing growth.  However, the members of those communities practiced what has been called “oikos” evangelism.  Oikos is a Greek word which means house or household.  Household referred to immediate family but also included extended family, friends, business and social associates, and even servants or slaves and their families.  How often do you read that the conversion of one person often led to the conversion of the whole family, the whole household?

Oikos has to do with your sphere of influence, those people you share something in common with either through kinship, work, or social connections.  It was the basic social unit and one by which the Church grew because of the immediate links of relationship, influence, and communication.  This is the realm in which the ordinary person practices evangelism. 

Today, one of our most popular pastimes is to sit around and argue about the state of the world, the state of religion, the state of our culture, etc. Yet, how many people have the right to hear the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but have not heard it because of the passivity of believers? 

This Lent might be a good time to dip your toes into the work of evangelism.  Strengthen your own faith through prayer, and then consider one or two people you know who need to hear the truth of Jesus Christ and His saving power in their lives.  Begin praying for them daily and asking the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to invite them to a deeper relationship with God, to show them what peace faith in God brings even during trial and difficulty, and to lead them to the deeper meaning of their life.

St. James tells us there is a tremendous reward when we work with Jesus in this way:

“My brothers, if anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone brings him back, he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  James 5: 19-20. That’s the kind of heavenly return Jesus gives us for our little efforts.  There are no better deals in the whole universe!

  1. The Scriptures point out that reaching the immediate family is not always easy.  “No prophet is without honor except in his own home…”. How can we move in Oikos Evangelism, given that challenge?
  • Stop for a minute and think about how many people you know who are disconnected from God and need to hear the kerygma for the first time or need to be invited to draw near again.  How many do you know who have known God and practiced their faith and now have fallen away?  This requires a different approach.  What would the difference be?
  • What special gifts do you think suffering in your own life might bring to a discussion about God with those who are far away from Him?
  • What can you do when someone is not yet ready to “talk” about God?  What kinds of things can you do in the Spirit to make the ground softer and more receptive?

The Burden of the Age

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Life’s burdens come in many forms.  What is a burden for one may not be a burden for another.  But what is certain is that everyone either carries or has had to carry burdens in their lifetime.  

Of all the possible burdens that may come to us, it is wise to consider which are the heaviest, the most debilitating, and really the most unnecessary.  There is a difference between those that are essential in our lives and those holding us back from the life we were meant to live.

Essential burdens revolve around commitments and responsibilities necessary for growth, development, maturity, and our humanity in general, such as family and community demands, personal obligations, charitable outreach, care in times of illness, etc.

A story from the life of St. Jerome illustrates a kind of burden that is the opposite, that holds us back from the future that Jesus has for us.  

St. Jerome had just finished decades of work on translating the Bible from Hebrew to Latin.    It was around Christmas time, and Baby Jesus appeared to him and asked him what gift he would give to Him for his birthday.  Jerome responded by offering Him the work he had just completed.  Jesus was pleased but told Jerome He wanted more.  Jerome then offered Him his life, his heart, his prayer.  But each time, Baby Jesus asked for more.  Finally, Jerome asked Him, “What else can I give you?”  Jesus smiled and said: “Jerome, give me your sins!”

This is probably the heaviest burden people bear today: the sins, guilt, and regret of things chosen and done in their lifetimes.  This can be true even of those who regularly go to Confession.  We come out again, not really understanding our sins are gone. We confess like Protestants who believe only that their sins are covered over.  Catholics do not believe this.  We believe that once our sins are confessed, they are gone forever.  God remembers them no more; even the devil can no longer access them to accuse us.  

While penance and reparation are good and necessary, they are meant to strengthen us in our resolve and, in the grace of repentance, not become a new burden to carry.  Jesus does not stay stuck in our sins the way we do.  He does not constantly revisit them the way we do.  He wills to remember them no more.  They are gone.  Instead, Jesus beckons us to follow Him into the future.  It does us no good to stay back, clutching our forgiven sins as though they are still there.  And it is even more deleterious not to confess at all.  Unconfessed guilt can make us sick and so unbalanced psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually that we become incapable of building and living the kind of life that would make us and those around us happy. 

The movie The Mission illustrates this dynamic well.  Captain Mendoza, one of the main characters, a mercenary involved in the slave trade, kills his brother in a duel after finding him with his fiancé.  His regret is so powerful that it becomes a force for his own conversion, even bringing him to the point where he joins the Jesuits as a missionary to the native peoples.  His self-imposed punishment/penance is to drag a large net full of heavy armor and the tools of his mercenary life as they travel through the jungles to establish a mission among the people who live there.  At times on the journey, his brothers try to free him of his burden by cutting the rope that continually drags him backward.  But he doesn’t believe he is forgiven until finally, the native people he has exploited demonstrate forgiveness by cutting the rope that binds him to the past.

Rather than dragging the burden of sin into the new year, we also can be done with it once and for all. In the Confessional, the Priest who hears our Confession “in persona Christi,” in the Person of Christ, takes the sword of the Spirit and severs the sin, the regret, and the guilt of it from our lives.  This causes great rejoicing in heaven and, at the same time, fills our souls with the energy, hope, and joy in which Jesus can begin fulfilling His promises in us.

  1. What are some of the common burdens people carry today?
  • What do you think is meant by “Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ?” Galatians 6:2 
  • What might be some unnecessary burdens we place on ourselves that actually hinder us in our relationship with God and with others?
  • What are some ways we can lighten another’s load?

An Examination of Love: Spiritual Exercise 10/09/23

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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?

Discerning The Spirit Of God: Spiritual Exercise 09/11/23

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Join Zoom Meeting: Please use the link below. Included are the meeting ID and password. Our meeting begins at 6:30 pm MT.

https://zoom.us/j/98208217341?pwd=ZW9vQ2h3SFpkcHNLRmlMd1B3a0RIdz09

Meeting ID: 982 0821 7341

Passcode: 422122

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

Discerning the Spirit of God

There is a general rule in life that applies fairly consistently across the board.  The rule is that you generally see only what you are looking for.  If you are looking for the bad, you will find it easily enough.  Likewise, if you are looking for the good, for beauty, for truth, that is what you will see when it is present. 

The spirit we adopt (and there is a real choice here) determines in great part the way in which we move through life.  We all know people we would describe as having a generous spirit, a kind and charitable spirit, a spirit of joy and enthusiasm, and a spirit of faith.  We likewise know people whose spirits are heavy and negative and who can’t seem to find good in anything.  We all know who we gravitate to and who we prefer to be around when given a choice.

The critical spirit manifests in negativity, which often expresses itself in obsessively looking for things to judge, and condemn in others.  The condemnation is often expressed in indignation, contempt, cursing, and all manner of expression that is the opposite of blessing. 

Unfortunately, our culture is rife with people who have been taken over by a critical spirit.  There is no room for redemption.  If you did something 30 years ago, repented, and made all the proper amends, it does not matter.  You will be held accountable again and painted into the box of your past with no way out.  This is the ultimate end of a critical spirit, and thousands of lives are ruined by it, both professionally and personally.

Today, there is a real struggle to have a discerning spirit that does not degenerate into a critical spirit.  For many reasons, the critical spirit today is so prevalent that it invades everything.  We are formed by education and by the culture to find fault and, worse yet, to be personally offended by everything.  The fruit this produces can utterly divide and destroy the unity within families, communities, and even whole countries.   

The roots of this kind of spirit clearly come from hell. But in the end, the Scriptures tell us that “the accuser of our brothers will be cast out.” -Rev. 12:10 In its place, the Spirit of God will reign, and the glory of God will be made manifest. Accusation is a sure sign of ungodly activity. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, even when He convicts us of the truth of something we need to repent of, moves in peace and encouragement. He is our great Advocate, our Consoler, our Comforter, our Sanctifier. His actions bring us to unity with God and with one another. The critical spirit does the opposite. It drives us away from God and from each other, into the abysmal, blinding misery of our own false importance, and ultimately into an isolation that kills the soul.

What to do?  If you receive a camera as a gift, with the encouragement to take beautiful pictures, you will find yourself starting to look for beauty.  And consequently, you will begin to see beauty where you never saw it before.  This will, without a doubt, increase your joy.  If you set out to look for the goodness of the Father in others and practice searching for it, you will begin to see it where you never saw it before. You will be far less likely to judge.  Again an increase in joy and love for life will result.

This is a spirit we desperately need today because sometimes all it takes is for one person to really see beyond all the negatives. It is amazing what one smile, one blessing, and one positive comment can do. The spirit with which you approach another person can heal many an invisible suffering and do wonders to reset the course of a life that perhaps has gone off the rails.

Take some time to think about the spirit with which you live your life and ask the Lord to help you cultivate the kind of spirit that will prepare you one day to see the glory of God face to face because you have already worked to see it in its hidden revelations here in time.

  1.  What is the difference between right judgment and accusation? What distinguishes one from the other?
  1. How have you experienced the glory of God here in this life?  
  1. How would you characterize your own spirit?  What have others said about you?  How do you see yourself?
  1. What gift of your spirit do you think God wants you to leave with the people you interact with?

Please join us the second Monday of each month. We look forward to spending time with you. Peace and Blessings.

Receiving the Gifts of Our Lady: Spiritual Exercise 08/14/23

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Please join us for our upcoming session with Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT. It takes place Monday 08/14/23 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm 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

Receiving the Gifts of Our Lady

Our Lady has made various prophecies during her approved apparitions down through the centuries of time. Many of them are warnings. Most of them grant the possibility of mitigation if enough people repent and turn back to God.

Our Lady also has obtained unique gifts for us, which She lavishly offers to her children, asking only the fulfillment of certain, easily complied-with conditions. One of the most overlooked gifts today is the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. St. Dominic, speaking to St. Francis of Assisi and St. Angelus back in the early 13th century, uttered a famous prophecy: ‘To my Order, the Blessed Virgin will entrust a devotion to be known as the Rosary and to your Order, Angelus, she will entrust a devotion to be known as the Scapular. One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, she will save the world.’

One of the unfortunate misapprehensions present today results in a general minimizing of the importance of sacramentals by framing them as potentially superstitious practices. This is enough for many people to conclude that they don’t need such gifts. The widespread practice of enrolling children in the Brown Scapular at the time of their First Holy Communion was discontinued because of this. Very sad.

To receive the spiritual blessings associated with the Scapular, it is necessary to be formally enrolled in the Brown Scapular by a priest. Once enrolled, the enrollment is for life and need not be repeated. St. Claude de la Colombière, the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary, says of the Scapular: “No devotion has been confirmed by more numerous authentic miracles than the Brown Scapular.”

If you do not have the right attitude toward the Scapular, wear it anyway. There are many stories of the conversion of souls who agree to at least wear it. Even non-Catholics may wear it. Once you put on the Scapular, Our Lady is committed in a particular way to helping you even if your own heart is not yet in the right place. Our Lady promises, “Whosoever dies clothed in the Brown Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire. It shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger, and a pledge of peace.”  Don’t hesitate to put a scapular on a dying person, either, even if they have questionable faith. Your faith can supply, and there are innumerable stories of Our Lady taking care of the rest.

Fr. Chad Ripperger, who specializes in deliverance and exorcisms, indicates in one of his stories that the demons particularly hate the brown Scapular and will do anything to get it off of people because it snatches so many souls from hell. The demons know its efficacy, and they know when they see someone wearing it that they will have to fight Our Lady herself for this soul. They are always doomed to be defeated by Her, so they seek to separate souls from her as one of their first moves.

The last apparition of Fatima was of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel holding out the Scapular in one hand and a Rosary in the other. Sr. Lucia, the oldest of the visionaries at the time, said: “The Rosary and the Scapular go together.”

Mary attaches another promise to those who wear the Scapular: the Sabbatine Privilege. This concerns a promise made by Our Lady to Pope John XXII concerning those who wear the Brown Scapular: “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”

There are three requirements to make oneself eligible for this privilege: 1st, we must wear the Scapular; 2nd, observe Chastity according to our state of life and 3rd, recite the Little Office of Our Blessed Mother (The Rosary can be substituted for the office by obtaining permission from a priest.)

We can’t take anything with us when we leave this Earth except our good works and the love we have exercised and banked in our heavenly coffers. We can, though, enter eternity wearing the Scapular, which will identify us as children of Mary and assure us we are not eternally lost. Don’t leave Earth without it!

Questions for silent reflection:

1.     There is a new Scapular apostolate beginning whose goal is to clothe everyone in the world with a scapular.  Are you aware of its importance and does your family know about the Scapular? 

2.     When we put on the scapular in good faith, Our Lady obligates herself to caring for us in a particular way and to protecting us from any kind of eternal harm the evil one seeks to do us.  How might you introduce someone to the idea of wearing it especially if they have issues with Mary?

3.     What do you think was in Mary’s mind as she gave us this gift?  How does she see the scapular?  There is something different about receiving an actual blessed item Our Lady wants us to wear, vs. just listening to an exhortation about how we should relate to Our Lady.

4.     What are other things you can offer people to benefit their souls?  Clearly we are meant to work Jesus’ mission saving souls.  What are some other ways we can concretely participate?

Our next session takes place 09/11/23. Please join us. Thank you, and may the Lord bless you, your family and your community. Peace.

Becoming True Influencers: Spiritual Exercise 06/12/23

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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.

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

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.
  1. Who has had the greatest influence in your life (apart from Jesus). 
  1. What areas today need a Christian influence and what would that look like?
  1. What qualities or characteristics do you think make someone influential?

Living A Life Filled With The Holy Spirit: Spiritual Exercise 05/08/23

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Please join us for our upcoming session with Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT. It takes place Monday 05/08/23 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm 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

Living A Life Filled With the Holy Spirit:

Most of us are baptized. Most of us are confirmed. Most of us have received, therefore, the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Yet most of us don’t know much, nor do we expect the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate in us. We do not understand the treasure we possess in the Person of the Holy Spirit, Who dwells within the temple of our own souls. We’re like beggars dressed in rags but having one priceless jewel within the lining of our clothes, we don’t know what to do with. So, most times, we forget about it.

When we get earnest about our life with God, we begin to wonder about some of our core beliefs. Why are we not more like the early Church? Why do we not see more of the unity, signs, and wonders that marked the life of believers and which flowed from the Eucharistic life they shared in common?

A friend of mine, a convert, once asked me how long I had been going to daily Mass and daily Communion. My answer at the time was 30-plus years. Her next question was: “Why aren’t you walking on water yet?” Her meaning was clear. We should be doing all the things the early disciples did: healing, casting out demons, teaching, and evangelizing to the four corners of the earth with a zeal that spends its life in the mission of Jesus. So, what’s the problem?

Once, when trying to recruit members of a charismatic prayer group to come to pray in front of an abortuary, the discussion preceding this invitation was revealing. A woman had earnestly exclaimed that she wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but she didn’t know why she wasn’t. She went to Mass, followed the Ten Commandments, prayed regularly, and tried to do the right thing. She did not think issues of unforgiveness were her particular block. Yet she knew she was not filled with the Holy Spirit.

As I got up to speak, I was moved to say something unplanned. I reflected that if the Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of Life, we cannot be filled with Him if we are closed to life in any way. It was as though somebody set off a bomb in the room. A stunned silence descended and was finally broken by the loud lament of the woman who had been talking: “It’s a lie, it’s all a lie. We bought into a lie and sold that same lie to our daughters!”

She explained that when she and her husband married, they achieved all they wanted, good work, a beautiful home, and two children. Then her husband went and got a vasectomy. But she kept having a recurring dream about a child who would come to her in the night. And she realized then that that child belonged to her but that she and her husband hadn’t been open to that life. Hence the impasse with the Holy Spirit. If you cannot receive one made in the image and likeness of God, how can you receive God in Person within yourself?

It would seem that there is room here for a general examen by the whole Church on our relationship to life because the current state of the world is a direct consequence of our failure as believers to counter the forces of iniquity bent on destroying all life, both temporal and eternal. And we have been ineffective because the strength, determination, and power of the Lord have not been with us to the degree that they should be.

We look first to our own hearts and ask the Lord to uncover anything in us that does not freely receive and rejoice life in all its variety, stages, beauty, and dependence upon our good will for its full flowering. We repent, confident of the Lord’s patience and mercy, and implore the courage necessary to fight for and defend life in all its vulnerabilities, knowing that in this way, we encounter and can assist with His gifts, the Holy Spirit who hovers solicitously over all life.

Questions for silent reflection:

1. Do you think the gift of healing can operate in someone who is suffering or ill themselves?

2. What is your relationship with the Holy Spirit like? How do you relate to Him?

3. What gifts of the Holy Spirit are you particularly attracted to? *

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;

“There are different forms of service but the same Lord;

There are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.

To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit;

To another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit;

To another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues.

But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.” 1Cor 12:4

4. We are always receiving grace and impulses to do certain good things from the Holy Spirit. Are you conscious of any moments in your life when you knew you were being moved by the Holy Spirit? Have you ever experienced consequences for not following a prompting by the Holy Spirit?

The Forgotten Intercessors: Spiritual Exercise 04/17/23

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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?