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My Minecraft Persona
Pretty embarrassing: Malta 33 Wolf Point 6 end of 1st.
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It’s Malta HS football time again! Go Mustangs!
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Fr. Barron comments on the Depressing Pew Forum Study
Much digital ink has been spilled over the recent study by the Pew Forum showing the lack of knowledge by Catholics and Mainline Protestants about their own faiths. Fr. Robert Barron, professor at Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago and guiding force on the Catholicism project, contributes his thoughts to the discussion:
First Posterous Post
Posterous.com is a service that’s supposed to allow for quick and seamless posting to social media and blogs via email. I’m trying to figure out how to do more posting to my blog, so I’m giving Posterous a try.
In other words, testing 1, 2, 3.
Sent from my iPad
Homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Far too many of us, myself included, are not good at being persistent on what matters. Sure, we might persist in doing something we absolutely have to do, such as an assignment for school or some requirement for our job, and we’re pretty good about being persistent in those things we enjoy, like sports or recreational activities. How many of us put the same persistence into our spiritual lives that we put towards other, less important aspects of our lives?
Jesus tells us in our Gospel today that we need to be persistent in the practice of our faith. He doesn’t say that the widow would approach the judge once in a while, like once a week or once a month, but that she persisted in her requests for the just judgment. We need to be just as persistent in our spiritual lives. If we are persistent in living our lives as Christian disciples, our faith will grow stronger, but if we become lax in our discipleship, not allowing our discipleship to influence how we live our lives, our faith becomes stagnant and eventually dies.
There is no level ground in the spiritual realm. We either continue our climb towards God or will slide back away from Him. When my family and I were living in Williston, ND, during my elementary school years, there was a gravel plant close to my house. My friends and I would go and play on the piles of gravel during the weekends when no one was working at the plant. To climb these piles of gravel, we had to climb as hard as we could without stopping. To stop meant either to sink in a little ways, which made it harder to start again, or slide backwards down the loose slope.
The spiritual life is very much like climbing that gravel pile. If we are persistent in the practice of our Christian discipleship, we will continue up that slope. We need to regularly engage in the practices of prayer and Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. We need to be involved in spiritual activities, which include reception of the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Confession and devotions like the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and Eucharistic Adoration.
It’s also essential that we persist in learning more about the faith which has been passed on to us. While Religion classes at Catholic school or CCD programs at parishes pass on the basics of what we believe, there is far more to what has been revealed by Christ. A geologist can learn a lot about a mountain from a few small samples of rock, but there is still far more to learn by studying the mountain itself. In the same way, our CCD or Religion classes were just the start of learning about this great and wonderful mountain we call the Christian faith.
There is often a comparison made between the persistence needed to succeed in sports and the persistence required to live a Christian life, and with good reason. Some of the best-known athletes in the history of professional sports haven’t been those with natural talent for whom the sport came easy. Instead, the most admired athletes are those who persisted despite some adversity or difficulty in their lives, and succeeded in a way no one imagined they ever could.
Those who are held up as the great spiritual masters are also not those for whom the spiritual life has been easy, but rather those for whom it has been difficult. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta was said to have spent much of her life without any consolation in prayer, not receiving any feeling or emotion from her prayer, yet lived a long life as an example of Christian discipleship. St. Monica spent many years in anguish, praying for her son who had left the practice of the Catholic faith, only to see him return 6 months before she died. Her son, St. Augustine, is now known as one of the great teachers and theologians of the Catholic Church, much to the credit of St. Monica’s persistence in prayer on his behalf.
These saints, and many more like them, are examples for us in persisting in our Christian discipleship. Like us, they were busy. Like us, they had many cares and concerns that filled their lives, some similar to what we face and some different, but their lives were not less difficult than ours. The difference between the saints and us is the desire to be the best disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ they could be.
We too should strive with every breath to be the best Christians we can be. We might fail on occasion, but we will succeed with persistence. Our Lord asks in today’s Gospel, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on Earth?” (Lk 18:8) Our persistent answer should be “Yes, come Lord Jesus! Amen. Alleluia!”
Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
When we look at the world around us, we might feel like the prophet Habakkuk in today’s first reading. We see violence towards mothers and unborn infants through abortion. We see violence towards those who are elderly or infirm through euthanasia, which is also known as so-called physician assisted suicide or “death with dignity”. We see violence throughout the world in wars and other armed conflicts between nations. We see violence in families and towards children in both physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. We see countless other ways in which humans perpetrate violence against other men and women. We look around and want to cry out like Habakkuk, “How long, Lord?”
Today has been set aside as Respect Life Sunday by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This is one Sunday out of the year in which we are asked to consciously examine in our lives what we are doing to encourage respect for the dignity of human life in all its forms, from conception to natural death. We need to take this day to closely examine our response to a “culture of death”, in the words of Pope John Paul II, that seeks to end any human life seen as unwanted, inconvenient or burdensome.
We have been commanded by Our Lord to spread the Gospel to the whole world. Of course, we do this on an individual level through teaching what Jesus taught and living our lives by His example, but we also do this by working to change the world on local, state, national, and international levels. Christianity is not a private religion, not merely “me and Jesus”, but calls and challenges us to constantly seek ways to reform the world to follow the plan of God our Father in Heaven.
As Christians, we need to fight against this culture of death and proclaim boldly that all humans, whether wanted or unwanted, convenient or inconvenient, have the right to be treated with the dignity deserving of a child of God, and each one of us has the right to life from the smallest infant in its mother’s womb to the most infirm and helpless among us. We need to fight for laws that defend life, not take it. We need to challenge our legislatures and elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, to place the protection of human life above all other worldly concerns.
I know it’s difficult for us to raise our voices in a crowd, to write the letters, make the phone calls, do the actions that this fight against the culture of death demands. I still remember the first time I prayed in front of an abortion clinic. It was a terrifying ordeal to stand out in front of that building, making my pro-life views known, but yet I felt called to go back again and again. To this day, praying at pro-life vigils in front of these so-called “clinics” is difficult, but yet it needs to be done.
St. Paul encourages us, “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord […] but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Standing out against the crowd, defending a view that is not popular or even opposing the laws of our nation, is not easy, but we must not allow fear to prevent us from speaking out. As Catholics in union with the teachings of the Church, we have the promise of Christ Himself that what we defend is not merely our opinion or political view, but the Truth revealed by God through His Son and defended and taught throughout the years by the Church which was given to us by Christ.
For those of us who dare to call Jesus Lord and call ourselves Christians, we have been commanded by Our Lord Jesus Christ to defend the Truth He revealed against those who would advance a culture of sin and death. May we follow that command, tirelessly seeking to support and defend the respect of human life in our community, nation and world.
Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is a saying about Jesus’ life on earth: he came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. This shows up in Our Lord’s words throughout the Gospels, such as the parable of Lazarus and the rich man which we just heard, and in the warnings of the prophets, like the first reading from the prophet Amos. For us as Christians, we need to take these warnings that are found in Scripture to heart and examine if we have become too comfortable in our lives.
When we talk about being comfortable, we usually first think about having enough money and possessions to live a life without concern. In fact, I think most people read the parable in today’s Gospel as being only about the rich man not sharing his wealth to Lazarus. While the lack of generosity with his wealth is part of the problem, it was not the primary concern of Our Lord, but rather the complacency of the rich man towards Lazarus. The rich man could have done much to care for Lazarus, but was unwilling to do so out of his position of comfort.
In our lives, we can become comfortable, not merely by having enough money or possessions, but by falling into routines and practices that focus solely on ourselves and our immediate families. We become so concerned about what we want and desire and need that we lose sight of the needs and desires of those around us, even those we see every day, just as the rich man had to see Lazarus lying at his gate every day. This level of comfort, becoming oblivious to the needs of those around us, is exactly why Our Lord used the parable to berate the Pharisees.
To avoid becoming this comfortable, we need to follow St. Paul’s encouragement to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith” by performing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. These 14 works, 7 physical and 7 spiritual, should be familiar to all those who attended Catholic school or religious education, as we all should have learned them early in our Catholic education. These works of mercy all come from the teachings of Christ within the Scriptures and have been developed into their current lists through the Tradition of the Church to guide us in following Our Lord’s command to love our neighbor.
In the corporal works of mercy, we are asked to perform acts of charity towards the physical needs of those in our community and world, while the spiritual works of mercy affect the spiritual needs that we all share, whether we realize it or not. As a reminder, the corporal works of mercy are: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy are: admonish the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the afflicted, bear wrongs patiently, forgive all injuries, and pray for the living and the dead. Just in case you’re like me and can’t remember these important works of mercy, the pamphlet from the Fathers of Mercy in the back of the church does contain these lists.
If we truly wish to enter into the salvation promised by Christ, we will make performing these works of mercy very seriously, and will examine how we can change our lives to fulfill them. As part of our examination of conscience, which we should do every night before bed, we need to ask how we are living these works of mercy. For example: Do we seek out ways to help those who are in need locally, and support those organizations who serve those in need throughout the world? When is the last time we visited someone who is homebound or under nursing home care? Do we regularly pray for those who have died, especially those who have no one to pray for them?
By honestly asking these questions and seriously reflecting on the answers, we will seek to live out these works of mercy in our lives. May we join Our Lord in comforting the afflicted and avoid becoming one of the comfortable who are afflicted.
Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I’m going to say something that we don’t want to hear: all of us, every single man, woman and child in the world, are sinners. We don’t want to hear that. We want to believe that we’re just fine, that everything we do is OK, that nothing is right or wrong so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Look at the messages coming out of our culture: nothing is wrong, unless it offends political correctness. Behaviors and actions that were once avoided and shunned because they were considered sinful are now held up as normal and encouraged. Living together outside of wedlock, gay marriage, abortion, and euthanasia are no longer wrong in the eyes of our culture. The only sins in our world today is failure to protect the environment or have too many children or, worst of all, be judgmental against someone’s sinful lifestyle and choices.
Yet, despite the message our culture is trying to cram down our throats, sin does exist. Sin is not merely doing something that hurts someone else, it’s living contrary to God’s design for our lives. God, who created us from nothing and keeps us in existence out of His unending love for each of us, has a plan for each of us individually, and for all humanity as a whole. When we act contrary to that plan, we tell God that our plans for our lives are more important than His plans. We cut ourselves off from Him to follow our own paths away from Him.
This is what happened during the Exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt. After leading the Israelites out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, God took Moses up to the top of the mountain so that the Law might be given to Moses and the Israelite people. During this time, as the Israelites were waiting at the foot of the mountain, they became discouraged and began to doubt that God would ever lead them to the Promised Land. They turned their backs on God, fashioning a false god to worship and give credit for leading them out of Egypt.
When we sin, we are like the Israelites, turning our backs on God and finding a false god to worship. This false god might be power and authority, earthly pleasure and possessions, wealth and esteem from others, or any other number of earthly things which draw us away from the one true God, our heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to come to Him.
Through our sins, we act like the son in today’s Gospel who turned his back on his father and lived “a life of dissipation.” He blew his entire inheritance on fleeting earthly pleasure and ended up with nothing, just as we do when we fall into sinful actions and behaviors. Sin is empty pleasure that doesn’t last, and we end up worse off after we sin than we did before. Sadly, for many sins, we may not even realize how much worse off we are until it’s too late.
There is hope, though, for us poor sinners. God is always willing to forgive our sins and welcome us with open arms. Just as the father ran to meet the son in the Gospel passage, God our heavenly Father is waiting for us to turn back to Him and ask for forgiveness. Jesus even promises us that there is rejoicing in Heaven every time sinners repent of their sins. We just need to approach God our Father with humility.
We see this forgiveness in every reading. Moses intercedes on behalf of the Israelites and God forgives them. The father throws a great celebration when the son returns from his sinful life. St. Paul even talks about the sinful life he led before his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.
God is ready and willing to forgive. In fact, St. Paul reminds us that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Our Lord’s mission here on Earth was to call all sinners to repentance, which is why He reached out to the sinners of His time, but we might feel like St. Paul who “acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.” We might not realize that some of our actions are sinful, or may not believe that we even sin at all. This is why I ordered the pamphlets from the Fathers of Mercy that contain an examination of conscience. The purpose of an examination of conscience is to help us know what actions and behaviors are sinful, find those sins that have rooted themselves in our souls, and to bring them before God in the Sacrament of Confession.
I want to make this abundantly clear: the normal way that God forgives our sins is through the Sacrament of Confession, instituted by Jesus Himself and offered by His priests acting in Persona Christi (in the Person of Christ). The only times that would be exceptions to this are dire, life-threatening emergencies that are unavoidable and unforeseeable. The common example would be reciting an Act of Contrition as an airplane is going down and about to crash. Fortunately, these circumstances are extremely rare, and many of us may never have to face these kinds of emergencies, so reception of the Sacrament of Confession is essential – it’s a must – for every Catholic, whether we want it or not.
We need the wonderful and powerful Sacrament of Confession because we all are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. He is always ready and willing to offer that forgiveness out His great love for all of us. Will we be humble enough to accept it?
“Where were you when the world stopped turning…”
There are events that have occurred throughout history that are so shocking, so life-changing that you can remember exactly where you were when you heard about them. Bombing of Pearl Harbor, JFK’s assassination, and fall of the Berlin Wall are examples of these kind of historic events. Of course, September 11, 2001 is one of those historic days that are seared into our memories.
The title of this post comes from a song performed by Alan Jackson shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and is a question that comes up every September 11: “Where were you when you heard about the Twin Towers?” We want to share how we found out, how it changed our lives for good or bad, and how it’s affected us to this day. It’s good to stop and reflect on that day, to remember where we were and to remember those who died on that tragic day.
September 11, 2001 was a typical day in my second year of college studies at Mount Angel Seminary. One of the dorms on campus was being remodeled, so the college seminarians were living in a dormitory in the town of Mount Angel that was originally built as part of a girls’ school. The girls’ school had closed many years before, and the building was used as both transient housing and storage. The Benedictine Sisters who owned the building remodeled and rented out the top floor to the college seminary so that we would have a place to live while the dormitory on campus was going through its remodel.
Since we lived off campus, every morning started with a drive through town and up “the Hill”. Of course, this was only about a 5-10 minute drive, but was less convenient than actually living on campus and walking to Mass or classes. On Sept. 11, I woke up, as usual, and got ready for the day. With all my books and stuff needed for the day in hand, I hopped in my truck and headed to the seminary campus.
My radio was usually tuned to the Catholic radio station in the Portland, OR area, and this morning was no exception. The announcers kept talking about some big event that just occurred in New York City and we needed to pray, but they weren’t being specific. They just kept encouraging prayer for those affected. After a few minutes, my curiosity was getting the better of me, and I needed to find out what happened. I switched over to one of Portland’s talk radio stations as I started driving up the road that snakes up the hill to campus. About half-way up the hill, I heard about the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. To this day, I can still see exactly where on the road I was when the announcement came across. Pulling into the parking lot, I rushed to the student recreation hall and saw the images for the first time. I arrived in the rec hall about 7:15 AM Pacific Time, just between the collapse of the two towers. According to Wikipedia, Tower 2 collapsed at 9:59 AM Eastern (6:59 AM Pacific), with Tower 1 collapsing at 10:28 AM, 30 minutes later.
Over the next week or so, the seminary had several organized prayer events for the victims of the attacks, and many seminarians spent much time in the chapels on campus praying. Like much of the country, we responded by turning to God to pray for the souls of the deceased and their families, and to pray for consolation for ourselves.
Some might wonder why we would dwell on an event like this. Is this a kind of perverse nostalgia, living in the past focusing on a terrible event? I would answer that question in the negative, and even assert that it is important to remember those who have died, even 9 years later. Families are still dealing with the losses of their loved ones, and we need to remember those who gave their lives to save others. Likewise, we need to remember that there are those who would do such attacks on this country again, and again, and again. The second we stop remembering, we open ourselves up to those attacks.
Is this to say we can’t criticize the response to the attacks? No. There may very well be much that should have been done differently, but there also was much that was done right. We need to remember those who acted with bravery and those actions that were good responses, while correcting those actions that may have caused more harm.
We need to remember. “Where were you when the world stopped turning, that September day?”