Catholic. Pastoral. Trusted.
From the day the priest poured water over our babies’ heads and anointed them with chrism, my husband and I knew it was our responsibility to train them in the practice of the faith. The rite of baptism told us so. But it didn’t seem like big a deal. What’s...
Raising a family is hard work. Millions of small decisions make up the balancing act required to create a healthy home life for children. My hat’s off to the women and men who commit their lives to their families. They should take comfort in the Gospel’s reminders that even Jesus grew to maturity in the midst of the messiness of a home.
On a recent visit to my mother, I noticed a prayer posted on her refrigerator door: “Patient Trust,”* written by the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I stopped to read it closely, especially these stanzas:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
Praying With Eyes Wide Open
What many Catholics may not know is that Our Mother of Perpetual Help is an icon and comes to us from the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox Church. The Greek word for icon originally meant an image of a person, especially a royal person, that was painted or made of mosaic. Over time, however, icon came to refer to the sacred images of Christ, Mary, and the saints used in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church, as well as for prayer and devotion in the homes of its members.
Until recently, with the exception of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, it was unusual to see icons in Catholic churches and those of other Christian denominations such as Episcopalian and Lutheran. But today it is common for Western Christians to see icons of the Holy Trinity, Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints in their churches and to have them in their homes. Even so, icons remain somewhat of a mystery to most Christians of the Western Church.
So is there a difference between an icon and the other religious statues and pictures that are more common in Catholic and other Christian churches? The answer is yes. In fact, there are three main differences between icons and the religious art of the Western Church: the purpose of icons, the way icons are made, and most important, how they are used in prayer and worship.
I don’t know about you, but I find my nightly TV-viewing options rather uninspiring. It seems basic cable offers little more than crude sitcoms, so-called reality TV, and gruesome crime dramas. If an alien race tapped into our video streams to find out what sort of people inhabit Earth, they’d turn...
I turned 50 in May. When my physician informed me that I should steel myself for a gauntlet of medical tests, I added my voice to the chorus of people in and out of the health care industry asking, when does the testing get to be too much? When a...
The Church made an unexpected statement about the Blessed Virgin Mary during the Second Vatican Council. At this meeting of bishops, Church leaders referred to Mary’s life as a pilgrimage of faith, a theme Blessed John Paul II explored and further developed in his encyclical letter Mother of the Redeemer, as he spoke of the Church’s faith pilgrimage.
This reference to Mary’s faith journey was unexpected because pilgrimage implies movement toward a goal, and prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Church rarely thought of the Virgin Mary as progressing in her faith. This point is important because even the deepest faith does not bring clear knowledge of the ways in which God sustains and accompanies our lives and our world. Blessed John Paul II tells us that faith at times involves a perplexity, a heaviness of heart, such as that described by Saint John of the Cross as a dark night of faith in which our understanding is clouded or tested.
May-June 2012 On Judgment Day, you will answer to FATHER GOD, not mother earth.” I saw this on a bumper sticker and was struck by the implication that we must choose between God and the environment. In our polarized political climate, encouraged by a sensationalist news ethos and a sound-bite culture,...
In 1990 South Africa, it was evident that political inequality had to change. Soon after President F. W. de Klerk made a speech to parliament in which he called for a nonracist South Africa, a joke started making the rounds: Two solutions were in front of the country, one practical and the...
God’s Grace at Work in Us
When it comes to living a Christian life, we often hear the phrase, “Making a life around virtues and values.” And though we hear it, we still tend to ask, What does it mean to “make a life”? Doesn’t life just happen?
In reality, with each and every conscious decision, we make ourselves to be certain kinds of people. Every honest word spoken and every resisted temptation to lie make us honest people. Every unkindness—in word or in act—makes us unkind people. In that sense, we are the architects, the builders, of who we are and what we will become. We make ourselves to be one kind of people as opposed to other kinds: honest rather than dishonest, kind rather than unkind, generous rather than selfish, caring rather than cold.
Of course, as Christians, we expect and we hope more and more that these individual decisions and this work of constructing ourselves will be guided by that divine Architect, according to his plan and with the help of his gracious presence. But even according to his plan and with his divine help, we ourselves must decide and act—thus making a life for ourselves, making a life of ourselves.
Fiction
Kate tore the letter open eagerly. Letters from Dan were few and far between. Her eyes scanned the page in one fell swoop, looking for danger. Then her face relaxed and she went back to read for details. Kate always read letters from her children that way. She supposed all mothers did. It was the same way she looked her children over on the first meeting after a long separation. The kids called it “Mom’s assessment.” They joked about it, but they knew better than to try to hide anything from Mom.
Kate read as intently as she listened; picking up clues, probing for more. Letters, thought Kate, are very unsatisfactory, and she went back and reread the brief letter once more. Her face was troubled when she finally laid the letter down on the table in front of her. I have to show this to Ben, she thought. It’s not right to keep Dan’s letters from him. He loves Dan just as I do, and I would never forgive him if he kept a letter from me.
But Dan’s letters were becoming increasing foreign to both of them.
March 2012 Every year the story of the transfiguration comes around on the second Sunday of Lent. It’s a familiar tale: Jesus and the disciples climb to a high place, and Jesus goes walking in the clouds with Moses and Elijah, his face so bright the disciples can’t even look...
February 2012 Conversion in a perfect world would be as easy as grabbing one sublime moment of divine insight and riding it all the way to heaven. But we don’t live in a fairy tale. Life in God cannot be static. No matter how long or how hard we try,...
Spiritual Maturity | Part 5 of 6
“I’m spiritual but not religious.”
What do people mean by that statement? Some are probably avoiding official—organized—religion. Others may reject the faith they once belonged to because they are uncomfortable with particular teachings. Still others may have been hurt by Church leaders, teachers, friends, or family members who are religious.
It is true that some religious folks have harmed people. When those connected with God and with the Church hurt others, their actions reflect upon the Church and God. This reality is the subject of one of Jesus’ hardest sayings: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Mt 18:6).
Spiritual Maturity
Part Four of Six
Jesus sees Jerusalem in front of him. One can hear his heart breaking in his simple, earthy words, “How many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!” (Mt 23:37). Jesus has walked long, hot days to get here. He wants to put his arms around these people and embrace them. And yet he knows this is the city that kills prophets and stones those who are sent to it.
Catholic institutions: As I mentioned earlier, many orders of religious women in particular are turning their health care facilities over to lay boards and administrators who promise to continue the sisters’ legacy, specifically, to look after the sick, the suffering, the frail, and the dying as if they were looking...
January 2012 I come from a long line of storytellers—an uncle who can turn a nugget of memory into a family legend, a dad who wants everyone to understand “the rest of the story,” and a father-in-law whose favorite saying is “let me teach you something.” It’s a trait that has...
As we ring in this new year, we are given the opportunity to change our behaviors or attitudes. Catholics, of course, are encouraged to throw themselves wholeheartedly into this practice during Lent. However, counsel from all corners tells us there’s no time like the present to begin. So, too, with...
Spiritual Maturity | Part 3 of 6
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!” (Phil 4:4). Saint Paul offers first-century Philippians—and us—a dramatic challenge: Rejoice!
But what if we can’t? What if our road is difficult or dangerous? Would Saint Paul understand what our lives are like today? Won’t we look foolish if we “rejoice in the Lord always”? With problems like earthquakes and wars, trouble close to home, and deception and distrust at work and even among friends and family—will we look like we’re missing something if we rejoice?
Watch TV talk shows, listen to call-in radio programs, or sample blogs on the Internet. Clearly not everyone is rejoicing. We complain. We point fingers. We easily identify trouble all around us. What can we do about real problems?
Healer and Miracle Worker
It was a miracle waiting to happen. In 1966, a medical examination revealed that Angela Boudreaux’s abdomen was swollen to proportions of a six-month pregnancy from a liver nine times normal size. A preliminary biopsy found no liver tissue at all, and exploratory surgery determined that 90 percent of the liver was simply “replaced” by a malignant tumor. A number of pathologists confirmed the findings. Angela, a wife and mother of four young children, was told she had two weeks to live.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.—Isaiah 9:1 Long nights. Short days. In my part of the world, it seems the sun is barely up before it starts to sink. We rise in the dark, do our evening chores in the dark. We live in the country,...