Category Archives: Ask Fr Cory

We all have our daily routines. Some may start out the morning with coffee and watching morning TV, while others might immediately jump in the shower. Some may fill their evenings with activities, while others are content to relax at home. These daily routines occasionally get interrupted, but that’s rare for most of us.

In many ways, the Church has its daily routines. Prayer, Masses, meetings and so on. Other than big feasts and celebrations, these routines go on day in and day out regardless of season.

Daily routines in themselves aren’t bad. As human beings, we are creatures of habit, and routines free our thoughts for other, more important tasks and decisions. Most of us don’t have to plan out our mornings, for example, because we do the same things morning after morning.

Last week, after the Baptism of the Lord, we entered into what the Church calls Ordinary Time. This is the period of the liturgical year not covered by Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter seasons. It’s the part of the year where the Church slips into its daily routines without worrying about upcoming major feasts and solemnities.

Ordinary Time is really the reminder that everything in our lives needs to be sanctified, especially the ordinary, routine moments of life. St. Paul reminds us in the second reading this week, “you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy…”.

We have been sanctified by Christ, so we are called to be holy! One important way to do this is to take more of St. Paul’s encouragement that he gives us elsewhere (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18): “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” This is the call of Ordinary Time summed up in a couple sentences.

One saint I personally admire is St. Josemaria Escriva, who founded the movement Opus Dei in Spain. Although he died in 1975, his movement has spread throughout the world based on a simple message: God is calling all of us to be holy and that living our ordinary lives can result in that holiness. Although St. Josemaria goes into great detail of how to answer that call and seek holiness, it basically is summed up in St. Paul’s encouragement to always rejoice and pray unceasingly. I highly encourage everyone to look up his writings online, as many are available for free, and learn from him the path of holiness in our ordinary lives and daily routines.

As Mother Angelica, foundress of EWTN, liked to say, “We’re all called to be great saints. Don’t miss the opportunity!”

Throughout my priesthood, I’ve found great joy in the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism. Some of my fondest memories have come through this beautiful Sacrament. In one case, the child to be baptized would light up in a big, contagious smile every time I looked at him, which made it hard to continue the ritual without breaking out in laughter. A couple other times, I had the opportunity to bring entire families into the Church, including baptising all their children. It truly has been a joy for my priesthood.

It’s good to reflect on the experience of the Sacrament of Baptism in our lives. Do we remember the date of our baptisms? Have we heard stories of our own baptisms as infants, or do you remember the event if you were baptized at a later age? Do we ever stop and think about the importance of the Sacrament in our lives, not just at the moment of baptism but throughout our life’s journey?

This weekend is a great time to think about that event. Each and every one of us have received powerful and amazing gifts through the Sacrament, but do we recognize them? There is an unfortunate trend to view the Sacrament as something you have to do after having a child, sometimes due to the “encouragement” of grandparents. Others seem to view baptism as an elaborate initiation ritual, done to initiate the child into the Church, but has no further effect or responsibilities.

Of course, baptism is considered one of the Sacraments of Initiation. It is how we became Christians, followers of Our Lord Jesus Christ and members of His Body here on earth. It is an important event, and one we shouldn’t take likely. It is also a great moment of joy, worth celebrating and remembering.

However, it’s not a stand-alone event to be celebrated, then forgotten. At the moment of our baptisms, we were renewed, made new by the grace of Christ. As we entered the waters of baptism, we died to the old, and we rose out of the waters to the new. No longer would original sin cut us off from God, but now the gates of Heaven were opened to us! A laudable practice would be to celebrate the anniversary of baptism out of gratitude for this great gift from God.

This feast of the Baptism of the Lord is also a great reminder to us of the need to renew ourselves in our baptismal promises. For most of us, these promises were made on our behalf by our parents and godparents. Fortunately, we’ve been given opportunities since then to renew those promises and make that choice for ourselves. These promises are simple: reject Satan and sin, and embrace and follow the Triune God and His Church. They really are a call to being a disciple of Christ with our very lives.

Happy New Year and a Blessed Feast of the Epiphany! As we start 2020, many of us are taking the time to evaluate our lives and set goals for how we wish to change throughout this new year. We might make resolutions on how we’re going to live 2020 different than we have 2019 and before. Perhaps we’re setting goals for physical fitness or healthy eating. Maybe we’re giving up an unhealthy habit or behavior. We might even try changing how we treat others and the respect we show to those around us.

While we might not always keep our New Year’s resolutions, just the action of evaluating our lives and desiring some change to make us better is laudable. When we were baptized, we received the great gift of the Holy Spirit, who remains with us throughout the rest of our lives. One of the constant calls of the Holy Spirit is to conversion of heart, turning back to God and away from anything that keeps us from Him. The desire at New Year’s to undertake resolutions for change can be a subconscious recognition of that call for conversion, and is an opportunity to answer that call.

It’s appropriate that the Feast of the Epiphany comes during the time that we are undertaking these resolutions. While Christmas celebrates the birth of Our Lord, Epiphany commemorates the revealing of the birth of Christ to the world. We see this through the Three Wise Men following the star to Him.

Like the star shining in the sky leading them to the Christ child, Our Lord is the Light of the Word come into the world. His light is shining in our lives, showing us the way to Him. As we seek to set our New Year’s goals, perhaps we can turn towards the Light of Christ by making spiritual growth one of our resolutions. This is a great time to step up our spiritual practices, especially around silent prayer and study of the Scriptures and Church teachings.

As we begin 2020, now is a good time to welcome the Light of the World into our lives, and allow that light to lead us closer to God and each other.

Some of the most beautiful paintings and other artistic creations have the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as their inspiration. There’s good reason for this: the Holy Family is truly the exemplar of what family life is about, and is a model for us in our families today.

It seems like family life is becoming less and less prominent in our culture today. Rampant divorce, children out-of-wedlock, contraception and abortion, changing definitions of marriage, and more seem almost diabolical in their attacks on family life and what it means to be a family. It would be good, then, to look at what the Church has traditionally taught about marriage and family life.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #2201, we are given two purposes for marriage and family: 1) “the good of the spouses”; 2) “procreation and education of children”. In addition, paragraph #2204 calls the family “a domestic church”.

This means that first and foremost, marriage and family life is pointed towards salvation. The love between a husband and wife must be oriented in a way that leads the spouses into deeper relationship with each other while mutually guiding towards heaven together. This love must be self-giving between the spouses, and not selfish. A married couple I knew long before seminary were fond of saying, “Marriage is not 50/50, but 100/100.” Each person who is married should desire that their spouse accompany them into the Kingdom of Heaven, and live their lives seeking the fulfillment of that desire.

The second purpose of marriage is more than a little controversial today. Children are not seen as an essential element arising from marriage and special gifts from God. Instead, they are seen as a perk to be demanded if wanted, or burden if not desired. As Christians, we recognize, as the Church does, that marriage exists especially for raising, educating, and protecting children. Culturally, marriage exists for the nurturing and development of the next generation.

This leads into the concept of the family as a “domestic church”. In the same way that the Catholic Church exists to guide and educate all of us members in the way of salvation, spouses are tasked with guiding and educating the members of their family – including themselves – how to live the Faith in their daily lives. This task is so important that the Church clearly calls parents the first and most important educators in their children’s Faith.

With all the concerns and challenges regarding marriage and family life in our culture today, we as Christians need to be more conscious of living family life to its fullest. Families are the most important structure within both our country and the Church, so we need families to live that faith with boldness!

This week, we’re going to wrap up the discussion on the message to Sr. Agnes in Akita, Japan, by her guardian angel. As I’ve said before, this message calling for us as disciples to do acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice isn’t new, but has been a part of the call to discipleship from even before Our Lord’s ministry here on earth. I do believe, however, that this call is needed as much now as ever, both for the liturgical season of Advent and for the good of the world in the future.

We know that all things done by God come in His time, which rarely coincides with our own plans and timing. However, I don’t believe that it was mere chance that the message came out right before Advent. The season of Advent is one of preparing the way for Our Lord in our lives, as we heard from John the Baptist last week and Jesus this week in the Gospels. Just as John sought to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of Our Lord, Advent is a time to prepare ourselves for His coming into our lives now and His judgment at His return.

The acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice have been given to us by our Heavenly Father in order to do that preparation. We are being called as disciples to do these acts in order to open ourselves to Jesus, know Him better, and follow Him. If we perform these acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice out of love for Him, they will prepare His way in our lives.

I also believe that the call to acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice has a communal aspect. There’s no doubt that we live in divided times. Political rivalries have flared up into outright anger and hatred. People have banded up into groups, and these groups are fighting against each other, sometimes physically. Even within the Church, disagreements result in arguing and yelling instead of trying to find common ground.

When we commit ourselves to acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice, we can offer those acts for the good of others. As disciples, one important way we can show our love for neighbor is by praying for them and their needs. The very act of reaching out and serving our neighbors can be an act of penance. We can perform a work of sacrifice by giving something we have to a neighbor in need without counting the cost. I firmly believe that many divisions in our world and Church today would cease if we performed these acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice for the good of our neighbor, especially for those we disagree.

As we have reached the halfway point of Advent, this is a good time to evaluate how we are doing in preparing the way of the Lord, and recommit ourselves to acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice! Come, Lord Jesus!

We are continuing with our discussion regarding the message to Sr. Agnes in Akita, Japan, calling us to perform acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice. This week, we have reached the topic of acts of sacrifice.

Sacrifice is a difficult thing. It’s not easy. It’s not something we generally look forward to doing. In fact, human nature is such that we try to avoid it as much as possible. Sacrifice can take us out of our comfort zone in ways we might not understand.

However, sacrifice is also essential to growing spiritually. When we talk about sacrifice, we generally think of two ideas: the Sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross, which we participate in through the Mass; and personal sacrifices. In either sense, sacrifice is giving something to God as a gift for the sake of our salvation. It is through the Sacrifice of Our Lord that we can give up small things out of love for Him, uniting our dying-to-self to His death on the Cross.

The most commonly understood form of personal sacrifice is the idea of giving something up for Lent. Along with that, abstaining from meat on Fridays is also a form of personal sacrifice. These two ancient practices are things we shouldn’t keep just within the season of Lent. Abstaining from something we enjoy for the sake of God is an incredible act of love for Him, which he rewards with many graces. Even very simple sacrifices can be very beneficial for us spiritually.

As I wrote previously, the three acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice are connected, so prayer and penance can be forms of sacrifice. Praying the Rosary instead of watching TV or other forms of entertainment is a powerful sacrifice. Performing an act of penance instead of indulging a personal desire can be a great sacrifice as well. Fasting from a meal and using the time for prayer can greatly benefit us spiritually (and in many cases, physically!).

There is much more we can do to make small, personal sacrifices. Ultimately, through sacrifice, we “take up [our] Cross and follow [Jesus]” (Matthew 16:24). We embrace the Cross as our instrument of salvation, and it leads us deeper into our relationship with Christ. May we truly “Lift High the Cross” through our sacrifices, for our sake and the salvation of the world!

We’re continuing our discussion of the call from Akita, Japan, to commit ourselves to works of prayer, penance, and sacrifice. Since we discussed acts of prayer last week, this week is dedicated to discussing acts of penance.

I would venture that the average Catholic really only thinks of penitential acts as something we do after receiving Confession. It is true that part of receiving Confession is a commitment to performing a small penitential act, usually a prayer of one sort or another. However, performing penance is far more than just that one common situation.

Penance ultimately is the act of following Our Lord’s call to take up our crosses and follow Him. (Matthew 16:24) It is sorrow for our sins and an interior conversion of heart that leads to a turning of our lives away from sin and conversion back to God. While penance begins interiorly, in the depths of our souls, it shows itself through outward works of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

As I wrote last week, the acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice are connected, so one of the most important forms of penance is prayer. This is why the penance for the Sacrament of Confession is often a prayer or series of prayers. When we take time throughout our day for prayer, we are taking time to reconnect with God and allow Him to bring about that conversion of heart. Prayer itself can also be penitential, such as the Penitential Rosary of St. Padre Pio, with each Hail Mary replaced by an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.

Fasting is another concept that we generally have a narrow understanding. Mention fasting, and many Catholics will likely talk about giving up something for Lent, or Friday Fish Fries, or fasting from food on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. While these are all forms of fasting, there is more to it than the simple acts of giving things up. Fasting is about self-denial, especially of things that we desire but are not necessarily needs. We can make small acts of fasting throughout our daily lives by denying ourselves something we might enjoy and offer it especially to God in prayer.

Finally, almsgiving is not just a pitch for giving more money to the parish. When we give financially of ourselves to God through almsgiving, we are once again committing acts of self-denial with our goods and money. We are telling God that we want to trust Him more and follow Him with everything, even our finances. This is hard for many of us, as there is a strong drive to keep up with neighbors and family members in particular material goods and prosperity. Almsgiving fights against this temptation.

There is much more that could be discussed regarding penance. I invite everyone to examine the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1430–1439, for more information.

Last week, I wrote about the apparitions at Akita, Japan, and the recent message given to the visionary, Sr. Agnes. If you haven’t read last week’s column, I’ve posted it to my personal website, frcory.org, as I will with all my columns going forward.

Although the 3 acts of prayer, penance, and sacrifice encouraged by the recent message are largely connected, they’re worth considering separately. They do feed into each other, and together help us to grow as Christians in love of God and neighbor.

Prayer is not an easy thing. St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” Prayer is ultimately an openness to God; allowing ourselves to enter into His presence, and love Him, and be loved by Him. It’s been said many times that prayer is a conversation with God, which is true, but the deepest prayer is the silent conversation in which no words are spoken. This is where the Holy Spirit is allowed to “speak” on our behalf.

Most of us aren’t there. In fact, very few saints ever achieved the level of deep, contemplative prayer. For most of us, we struggle to do basic prayers we learned as children, and find a devotional life difficult. So, how do we enter into the kind of prayer requested in the message from Akita?

First, we start from where we’re at, but be more conscious of our prayer life. Prayer is something that should be constantly doing, but should not be on autopilot or ignored. Some people can pray constantly, especially with little emotive prayers throughout their days, but most of us still need to consciously choose to enter into prayer. Also, prayer should be treated as a priority, and not an afterthought.

Second, we need to push ourselves further. If we don’t spend much time in prayer, we need to make an effort to block off time daily for prayer. If we’re currently praying some memorized prayers each day, perhaps we need to focus more on silent times between individual prayers. This is just a couple examples, as we all are at different points in our prayer lives, but all need to move forward in our prayer journey.

Third, silence must be a part of our daily prayer. Distraction in prayer has always been a concern, but I would argue today’s culture of noise has made attention in prayer more difficult. Yet, if we are to deepen our relationship with our Heavenly Father, we need to learn how to enter into silence and be comfortable with it. This doesn’t mean we won’t be distracted, but learn how to bring distractions into prayer.

This is just a short starting point on how we can develop and deepen our prayer life. There is far more that could be talked about as we seek to enter into that deep contemplation of God. It is important, however, that we heed this call for prayer, especially praying the powerful prayer of the Rosary. More on this next week as we discuss the call for penitential acts.

I’ve recently begun to write a weekly column for the parish bulletin. I’ll also publish it here for a wider audience, and to the articles easier to find in the future.

Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been a number of appearances by the Blessed Virgin Mary and Our Lord Jesus Christ. Although these apparitions are considered private revelation and not binding on any Catholic for belief, many have found great devotion and comfort in these apparitions and messages. Sites of apparitions have become popular pilgrimage destinations, like Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, and Divine Mercy Shrine in Krakow, Poland.

For as many well-known apparitions, many more apparitions are relatively unknown. One of these lesser-known apparitions has recently been in the Catholic news: Our Lady of Akita.

Akita is about 550 km (340 miles) due north from Tokyo. A small convent of religious sisters called the Institute of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist exists for a quiet life of prayer. It’s into this order that Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, a 42 year old convert from Buddhism who had recently become totally deaf, entered the novitiate on May 12, 1973. She figured that the rest of her life would be spent in solitude and prayer.

That all changed on June 12, 1973, when Sr. Agnes saw a vision of a bright light coming from the tabernacle accompanied with smoke and visions of angels adoring the Blessed Sacrament. This vision happened several times to her, along with visits by her guardian angel. Later that month, Sr. Agnes was miraculously given a cross-shaped wound that was very painful. This wound would later start to bleed.

On July 6, Sr. Agnes received her first visit by Our Lady. She was directed by her guardian angel to pray in the community chapel. Once there, the statue of Mary seemed to come to life, and Our Lady spoke to Sr. Agnes. The next morning, the statue developed a wound identical to Sr.  Agnes’, which remained until September 29. Sr. Agnes’ own wound would disappear at the end of July.

Throughout the next couple years, various miraculous events would occur surrounding statue, and Sr. Agnes would continue to receive visions. Some were seen by the entire community, others by just Sr. Agnes. The statue changed in appearance and at even would weep tears on an irregular basis over 100 times. In 1982, Sr. Agnes had a miraculous healing of her hearing.

In 1984, the local bishop, John Ito, declared the apparitions as valid, and encouraged local devotion to Our Lady of Akita. This decision was later supported by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

As I said at the beginning, this particular apparition has recently had renewed attention brought to it. It was recently revealed that Sr. Agnes may have received another message about a month ago, on October 6th. While the report has not been confirmed officially, the message is very much in line with the previous apparitions at Akita, as well as Fatima and Lourdes, among others. Sr. Agnes stated that the same angel that appeared to her in 1973 appeared again, and said that she was asked to convey publicly, “Cover in ashes and please pray the Penitential Rosary every day.” Sr. Agnes was also asked to “become like a child and every day please give sacrifice.”

We need to take to heart this request for renewed prayer (especially the Rosary), penance, and sacrifice. Much of the original message of Akita surrounded belief in the Eucharist as Jesus truly present (something that concerns us today), and the need for prayer, penance, and sacrifice to appease the Father’s anger at the evils committed by humanity. We need to listen to Our Lady and do the works asked of us!

For this reason, I’ll be dedicating this column over the next few weeks to these topics of prayer, penance, and sacrifice. It is through these acts that the world will be saved. Our Lady of Akita, pray for us!