become like christ

We Become What We Love, So We Must Love Christ

The Chicago Cubs are in the World Series. If you’re a baseball fan, you know what a big deal this is. The Cubs have long been the lovable losers of baseball; some believe that a curse placed upon the team in 1945 has kept them from victory. They haven’t won a World Series since 1908. When the Cubs clinched the pennant before heading to the 2016 World Series, actor Bill Murray (a longtime Cubs fan) actually wept. That’s a true fan: someone who identifies so deeply with the team that the team’s victories and losses become one’s own. Murray isn’t just watching a game; he identifies with the team. He is a Chicago Cub.

As Catholics, are we “fans” of our faith? Do we identify so deeply with Christ, our Rock and our Salvation, that people see Him in us? Sister Ilia Delio, OSF, in her book Franciscan Prayer, discusses how Saint Clare of Assisi deepened her spiritual life with this vision of spirituality. Saint Clare described Christ as a mirror, by which we see a reflection of who we are in Christ.

The mirror of the Crucified tells us how we are most like God in this world through suffering, poverty and humility, and what we do to God in this world – crucify him. In this mirror, therefore, we see the greatness of the human capacity to love and the sorrow of human sinfulness.

In a way (remember: this is a metaphor!), we become a rabid fan: the ups and downs of “our team” get played out in our lives. But the love of Christ goes deeper than any relationship we have with a sport or a hobby. The more we “reflect” Christ, the more we become like Him. Our life becomes less and less a mere imitation of Christ, and more and more Christ-like. Delio:

We become what we love and who we loves shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ; rather, it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation.

Saint Clare advised a young woman to gaze upon Christ, consider Him, contemplate Him. The more time we spend with Christ in prayer and contemplation, the more we become like Christ. Saint Paul states this boldly: I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ in me… (Gal. 2:19-20)

Many of us – like a Cubs fan – are willing to invest time and money in our pastimes and hobbies. As Catholics, we know that our faith is not a mere hobby; it is the means of our salvation. It is the person of Christ Himself. If we become what we love, we need to ask ourselves, “Do I truly love Christ? Am I invested in my relationship with Him? Do I desire to become more and more like Him? Who do I see when I gaze in the mirror that is Christ?”

Transforming ourselves to reflect Christ to the world is so much more than a World Series victory. It is the triumph of sin over death; it is the victory that conquers the world.

back to school

Back To School: Happy New Year!

A priest once told me, “The calendar may say that January 1st is the New Year, but everybody knows it’s really September, when school starts again.”

There is some truth to that. Children head off to a new year of learning, navigating new skills with a new teacher and trying to figure out who they will sit with at lunch. (Don’t underestimate this last one; it can strike fear into the heart of a middle schooler.) Teachers must rouse themselves from their well-deserved summer downtime and get their classrooms in order. Parents scurry for school supplies, realize that everyone has grown since June and will therefore need new pants and shirts and socks and shoes. College freshmen unload trailers full of stuff for dorm rooms, and wonder if they will be able to handle the rigors of college life. Yep, it’s a new year, all right.

So what can this new year teach us about our spiritual life? First, we should all take time to pray for the students in our lives: may God grant them not only knowledge but wisdom, to not only follow the rules but to be kind, and that they learn to trust in the Lord in all things.

Why not take this time to add a new dimension of faith to your home? As a parent, did you know you can bless your child? Get some holy water (just take a small bottle to church and either get it from the baptismal font or the holy water dispenser.) Make it a habit to bless each child at bedtime or as they head off to school.

Maybe it’s time for you to go back to school, at least in terms of your faith. When was the last time you read a great spiritual book? Either read one on your own, or start a Catholic book club. (Check the list below for some suggestions.) Also, your parish or diocese offers adult small groups or classes. Consider joining one.

It could be that your prayer life isn’t as strong as you’d like it to be. Some of us do well with formal prayers, such as the rosary, while others just need time to be peaceful in God’s presence. Both require time, effort and commitment. Perhaps the “new year” is just the gentle “push” you need to spend time with Jesus.

If you don’t enjoy reading, there are many great Catholic CDs that you can listen to in the car or at home. If you have to drive to work every day, why not make it time spent learning?

Back to school and Happy New Year! May it be a time when we all are open to learning and to deepening our relationship with God!

(Here are just a few book suggestions:

  1. Graced and Gifted: Biblical Wisdom For the Homemakers Heart: Scott Hahn
  2. Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God: Scott Hahn
  3. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism: John Zmirak (If you haven’t yet read any of Zmirak’s books, you are in for a treat. He’s very funny, yet very serious about the Faith.)
  4. Waking Up Catholic: A Guide to Catholic Beliefs for Converts, Reverts, and Anyone Becoming Catholic: Chad R. Torgerson
  5. Be Not Afraid: A Book of Quotes for Catholic Men: Sam Guzman
  6. Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality: Raymond Arroyo
  7. Arise from Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense: Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R
  8. Why Go to Confession?: Father John Flader
  9. Loaded: Money and the Spirituality of Enough: Heather King
  10. My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir: Colleen Campbell King
hearts long for

What Does Your Heart Long For?

Our daily walk through this world can be tedious. We have to-do lists, calendar items, agendas: everything we must get accomplished in a day. Our walk can be lonely: friends drift apart, children grow up, people die. We have more things now to entertain us than at any other time in history, and yet boredom sets in.

We are not made to do things. We are made for Christ, and Him alone. Our purpose here is to become saints. Our hearts do not long for another meeting or another chore. Our hearts do not long for television shows or video games. Our hearts long for God.

The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke knew this. His parents wished that he join the military but his heart was for something else. He loved language and poetry. In 1899, at the age of about 24, Rilke traveled to Russia and there met the great writer Lev (Leo) Tolstoy, whose work explores the deepest desires of the human heart. Tolstoy’s influence on Rilke’s work is clear to see.

Raised as a Catholic, Rilke rejected the faith. However, his poems are full of Christian references and imagery, leading one to think that Rilke, too, longed for more than what this world has to offer. His entire life he struggled with light and dark, God and man, faith and despair.

Despite his struggles with faith and his avowed atheism, one cannot reject his poetry merely because he could not find faith and hope himself.  Who among us does not doubt? Who among us has not cried out to God in anger? Who among us has not turned his face to Heaven and said, “I want you, Lord. I need you. What I have is not enough; I long for more”? Even those who do not believe have searched the heavens, knowing that there is more, yet not being able to grasp it.

What does your heart long for?

Here is Rainer Mariaa Rilke’s Go To the Limits of Your Longing.”

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Signature Artist Series - Jen Norton

“Art Is My Language:” An Interview With Artist Jen Norton

Diocesan Publications is thrilled to have kicked-off its “Signature Artist Series” with California artist Jen Norton. (You can read Norton’s bio here.) While our in-house artists and graphic designers are very talented, it is exciting to collaborate with artists such as Norton. Even more exciting is getting the chance to speak with her, and learn more about her work.

 

Signature Artist Series - Jen NortonWhat’s your earliest memory of creating something artistic?

JN: Probably age 2, sitting at the kitchen table at my parents’ house.

I was debilitatingly shy as a child; I don’t know what they’d call it today, but somewhere in grade school they evaluated me and said, “She’s retarded.” It could have been anything – something on the Asperger’s spectrum, selective mutism, social anxiety – some kind of debilitating social illness. I didn’t really talk to anyone but my mother for the first seven years of my life.

My preschool teachers figured out I’d be perfectly happy if they put me in the corner with artistic materials and let me go at it. It was the only place I felt safe. It [art] is a part of my being.

I was no child prodigy; my art looked like every other kid’s art. It was about expression; I could express what I needed to express with art. And I could do this on my own and make myself happy without having to interact with other people.

 

As your talent developed, were there other artists who influenced you?

JN: My third “real” job after college was as a graphic designer in Silicon Valley. As a designer, you get these giant illustration books, and on my downtime, I’d flip through them. I admired these beautifully hand-done illustrations. Gary Kelley is one name that comes to mind, and Mary GrandPre who’s done all the Harry Potter stuff.

In terms of art history, the Post-Impressionist period, when people began to really experiment with paint. I’ve gone to d’Orsay and been in the Degas room, staring at one painting for twenty minutes and my husband is like, “What are you looking at?

It’s when you take the technique and you start to experiment – the color and the experimentation is interesting to me.

 

I know, as a writer, that an artist can find inspiration just about anywhere. You can see a billboard and go “Aha!” What are some of those “triggers” for you as an artist?

JN: Oh, gosh. Just nature. You know, you have the elements of design: color, shape, texture, space, form, harmony, balance … Pattern and color do it for me.

It can be a pattern in a leaf or a flower – those little bits and pieces get into my paintings. Getting out of my own head space, you know. Being an introvert, it’s very easy to be happy and stay happy inside my own head, but when I get out – to the ocean or the mountains – it refreshes you. It gives you new eyes.

I love to read Scripture or read, well, I’m reading this book on Mary Magdalene right now because she fascinates me.

 

During his papacy, St. John Paul II wrote a beautiful letter to artists. He spoke about their role in culture. How do you see your work as not just creating a beautiful “thing” but as a spiritual act?

JN: Art is an emotional language, so just like learning English or Spanish, it is absolutely necessary to learn some form of art (writing or music or painting or whatever) as your emotional expression.

You see so much violence in schools, and we all complain about [the loss of the arts in schools] but we realize it’s not just about “She wrote a great book” or … It’s an expression. For me, it’s in doing the art, working out problems. When it gets to the point where I like it and I think “that’s authentic” – there’s no way you can lie in art. If it’s authentic, it’s from your soul. It’s how you think your way through it.

Our society absolutely has to have a way to express itself on a more emotional level. Most of us have some level of disability of expression – like not being able to have a normal conversation – and we need another way to do it. If people were allowed to do that, if art were held in the same esteem as math and the sciences, recognizing that it’s a different animal but equal, I think we’d have a much healthier society.

Especially in America, we quantify everything by money. How much can you earn as an artist? Well, I don’t know; if you’re creative in how you do it, some make a lot of money. I’m making enough to help pay for my daughter’s college right now. It’s not a lost cause, and it’s not for everybody [as a career.] But to say art is “less” is to deny those who need [the belief that] they are just as important as those in math and science.

 

Much of your art combines the visual with language. This is sort of a “chicken and the egg” question – which comes first for you, the visual or the words?

JN: Like I said, art is my language so it goes together.

Both ways, I guess. There have been times when I’ve been commissioned to do something around a prayer and then I figure out the visual. And there are other ones where the image and the words kind of “gel” together. Or maybe I’ve done the image and I think, “This could use a little more…”

The first Catholic piece I did (because I was doing landscapes and such) came out of a difficult year, and the mantra that kept coming to me was “Let it be.” I felt like it was Mary, like saying a rosary, and it was her saying, “Let it be. Let it be. It’s okay. Everything’s going to be taken care of.”

It’s all different. There’s no format.

 

Obviously, your faith influences your work. How do you stay spiritually  healthy so that  your art continues to be true and beautiful?

JN: Well I don’t know if I do; I just try to stay indoors if I’m not feeling it [laughs.]

It gets really busy sometimes. I do a lot of production work because I sell copies of my work online. But I think for me giving myself time every day to reflect. I get up in the morning, make the coffee, feed the dog, and that’s when I’ll say a rosary. Somedays, I get really distracted: three prayers in and my mind is gone.

I have a daily Scripture reading that come through my email. I’ll try to take that half hour and just enjoy that moment. My mind will start to get busy with things I have to do that day, and I’ll go, “Wait a minute. I get this half hour for me.”

The rest is just day-to-day learning. If you’re trying to do right, and you do something wrong, you think, “Ok, I did that wrong. I don’t want to do that again.”

 

What’s your favorite part of the creative process?

JN: Every time you start, you look at that blank canvas and you think, “Ugh, that’s going to be so much work!”

You have to trick yourself into it. “I’m just gonna throw some color on this…” Part of my style has come around because I don’t want to take a lot of time sketching something out, or do an underpainting. I don’t have that kind of patience!

So I trick myself into it. I throw some paint on it, put some collage on, make some texture. “It doesn’t matter; I can paint over it.” I paint in acrylic because once it dries you can paint over it. So I paint and I get into it and there’s always this one point where I think “I’ve absolutely screwed this up. I have to fix it.” But I have to go through that frustration.

It’s between that point and the final touches that I’m beyond thinking of composition and structure; now I’m just doing textures and palettes and fun colors and balancing things. That’s where it’s much more emotional and intuitive and less thinking. That’s where I get the most enjoyment.

Thanks to Jen Norton for taking time to speak with us. We urge you to visit her website and take in more of her work.

Olympics

Is God At The Olympic Games?

Even if you are not athletic, the Olympics are fun to watch. It is incredible to see what people can achieve, what they can overcome and how human emotions are played out as we cheer on a favorite athlete, our nation, the underdog.

At the Huffington Post, David L. Katz asks, “Is god at the Olympics?” If god (lower-case spelling is Katz’s preferred spelling) is at the Olympics, Katz isn’t all that impressed.

It’s bad enough to lose at the Olympics because someone is better at running, or jumping, or swimming. But isn’t it downright devastating to lose because go prefers your opponent? We must allow that with every attribution of victory and its thrills to god, we are attributing to god as well the agony of defeat by divine decree.

Much the same reasoning extends to us, the spectators. If a member of some religion other than our own attributes their victory to god, and cites prayer as the explanation for their success, does it mean our prayers matter less? If god is listening so attentively to the ‘competition,’ does that mean s/he is not listening to us? …

Conversely, if a member of our faith wins, are we comfortable that it’s because athletes of other faiths have all made the wrong religious choice? Does it mean that the winner is the one who prays the best, or prays to the right deity?

Katz concludes that our world is fraught with so many problems: ISIS, the flooding in Louisiana, fires in California. “If god is really micromanaging outcomes at the Olympics for the sake of whatever contingent,” he says, “I can’t help but wonder: is that really the best use of his time?”

It would be wonderful to have the opportunity to sit down with this author and talk through his assumptions, but this blog post will have to do.

First, one would hope that Katz’s view of God as some sort of “divine accountant,” managing one gold for a Christian, a silver for an atheist, and a bronze for a Jew in one event, and then tallying medals for a Muslim, a Sikh and a Hindu in another is not truly how he sees God. No one should see God as playing favorites in such circumstances, or denying an athlete  a medal simply because she is the “wrong” faith. That vision of God makes him seem both cruel and petty. It’s also a very limited view of God: if God is here (at the Olympics) then he cannot possibly be there (with victims of the flooding in Louisiana.) And while we are all guilty of it at some time or another, it does take a bit of hubris to say, “Hey, God! Do you really think that’s the best use of your time? Come here – we gotta talk.”

It’s also clear that Katz has not been listening to the athletes themselves at the Olympics.

David Boudia – diving: “God was completely sovereign throughout this entire journey. He knew how it was going to happen, when it was going to happen and we know why it happens – to make me more like Christ.”

Jordan Burroughs – wrestling: I’ve been blessed with tremendous gifts, and it’s my job to use those gifts to inspire others. As a man of faith, I take great responsibility in being a good steward of my talent . . . God has created unique … avenues to allow me to glorify him.”

Maya DiRado – swimming: “I think God cares about my soul and whether I’m bringing his love and mercy into the world. Can I be a loving, supportive teammate, and can I bless others around me in the same way God has been so generous with me?”

Brady Ellison – archery: “Once I put winning in God’s hands, I stopped worrying about that . . . I just went to tournaments and shot with no fear, doing only the best I can do and leaving the rest up to God.”

Katie Ledecky – swimming: “My Catholic faith is very important to me. It always has been and it always will be. It is part of who I am and I feel comfortable practicing my faith. It helps me put things in perspective.”

Ibtihaj Muhammad – fencing: “I have so many messages across my social media platforms. It almost seems to be this trending thing, where our girls are being told that there’s things that they can’t do or shouldn’t do. And it’s not necessarily specific to Muslim girls. I would say there are tons of girls out there who find inspiration in my story regardless of their faith and are becoming more involved in sport.”

The message of faith that these athletes have espoused during their time at the Olympics is not “God picked me to win above all the rest of you” or “I prayed the hardest so clearly that’s why I won.” Rather, their message has been: God sustains me.

Most of us will never know the time, pain, sacrifices and dedication it takes to reach this level of athletic achievements. Of course it takes difficult choices. A person has to have a certain amount of natural ability. But there are many talented people – fast people, strong people, people who can jump and tumble and lift – that never make it to the Olympics. There is some unquantifiable “thing” – call it grit, call it resolve, valor, guts – that get certain people to the Olympics at a certain point in time. And while it’s clear that many people who do not believe in God have achieved Olympic glory, it is also clear that those who do believe in God do not credit Him with their winning, but rather credit Him with the fortitude and sustenance needed to do what they do.

Perhaps the best example of this happened two days ago, in the women’s 5,000 meter qualifying race. Two runners, Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand and Abbey D’agostino of the US, tangled feet and both fell.

With Hamblin lying on the floor behind her, D’Agostino got back to her feet but refused to continue the race. Instead, she sacrificed her race and turned around to help the prone New Zealander.

The pair hugged at the finish line after finishing well back from the rest of the field. Hamblin finished after 16 minutes and 43 seconds, while D’Agostino eventually finished after 17 minutes and 10 seconds, more than two minutes after the winner of the heat, Almaz Ayana, from Ethiopia.

Hamblin was in shock that a woman she didn’t know would do this, and said of D’Agostino, “That girl is the Olympic spirit right there…”

D’Agostino later discovered that she had torn her ACL and won’t be running again any time soon. But of her Olympic experience in Rio, she had this to say:

Although my actions were instinctual at that moment, the only way I can and have rationalized it is that God prepared my heart to respond that way… This whole time here he’s made clear to me that my experience in Rio was going to be about more than my race performance — and as soon as Nikki got up I knew that was it …

I felt the peace that comes with acknowledging that I’m not going to run this race with my own strength. And I think that acknowledging those fears before God is what allowed me to feel that peace and I was drawn to it and I wanted to know a God who would work that way in my life.

Is God at the Olympics? For believers, the answer is, “Of course. God is everywhere.” And for believers, the evidence is not in who wins or who loses, but in the experience and the witness. For people like David L. Katz, there would likely never be enough evidence to “prove” that God is at the Olympics. And that’s sad, because God’s presence there has been uplifting, powerful and astounding – everything the Olympic spirit should be.

darkness

Mother Teresa: A “Saint Of Darkness”

The world came to know Mother Teresa very well during her life. With the possible exception of St. John Paul II, she was likely the most recognizable Catholic on the face of the earth in the 20th century. Her faith and the work she and her Sisters did made her beloved and admired by many.

What no one knew (with the exception of a handful of people, mostly priests) until after her death, was the intense spiritual suffering Mother Teresa underwent for most of her life. Often referred to as “the dark night of the soul” (after a book by the same name written by St. John of the Cross), Mother Teresa had no feeling or consolation of the presence of God in her life.

Most of us have had a time in our life when we’ve cried out, “God, where are you??” It may be a time of illness or tragedy, or a time when our faith is tested by hardship. That feeling is but a tiny glimpse of the suffering of Mother Teresa.

She is not the first saint to endure this nor, undoubtedly, will she be the last. She spoke and wrote to perhaps one friend and also her spiritual advisers about this, but she was adamant that her Sisters and the world not know. She never wanted her experience to impact anyone else’s faith, especially her own Sisters. Upon her death, her diary and letters were released, and the world came to know Mother Teresa in an entirely different manner.

In the book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, Director of the Mother Teresa Center in California, presents and explores Mother Teresa’s experience. For the most part, Fr. Kolodiejchuk allows Mother Teresa to speak for herself:

The place of God in my soul is blank. There is no God in me. When the pain of longing is so great I just long & long for God and then it is that I feel He does not want me He is not there.

Fr. Kolodiejchuk goes on to say:

The reality of her relationship with Jesus was truly a paradox. He was living in and through her without her being able to savor the sweetness of His presence … it was only when she was with the poor that she perceived His presence vividly. There she felt Him to be so alive and so real. [emphasis added]

A Jesuit priest, Fr. Joseph Neuner, became a confidante and spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa in 1957, a relationship that lasted for decades. It was his guidance that allowed Mother Teresa to come to some peace with this spiritual condition, “a sharing in Christ’s redemptive suffering.” Fr. Neuner, years later, admitted that while this dark night of the soul was not unusual for the holiest of people, he had never found it so deeply in anyone as it existed for Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa came to see her “darkness” as an identification with the poor she and her Sisters served:

[S]he was drawn mystically into the deep pain they [the poor] experienced as a result of feeling unwanted and rejected and, above all, by living without faith in God.

Mother Teresa, in a letter to Fr. Neuner in 1962, said, “If I ever become a saint I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’ Her faith in Christ, and her absolute reliance on the Eucharist, allowed Mother Teresa to come to a point, spiritually, that she said, “I have come to love the darkness,” not because she loved the feeling that God was absent, but that this suffering allowed her to give herself wholly to the men, women and children that she served every day.

It is unfathomable to most of us how a person whose public face was one of joy and peace, could endure such darkness and still have faith. It is that last part, the steadfastness of Mother Teresa’s faith, under these incomprehensible spiritual conditions, that should and will be her most enduring legacy. As she said to Fr. Neuner in one letter, “You are sad for me but we really have no reason to be sad. He is the Master. He can dispose of me as it pleaseth Him alone.”

Olympics

2016 Olympics, Catholic-Style

The opening ceremonies for the 2016 Summer Olympics, being held in Rio, will have all the world watching. Our Holy Father has offered up a few thoughts on the Games:

In a world thirsting for peace, tolerance, and reconciliation, I hope that the spirit of the Olympic Games inspires all – participants and spectators – to ‘fight the good fight’ and finish the race together,” he said.

The Holy Father voiced hope that in competing this year, the Olympic athletes will desire “to obtain as a prize, not a medal, but something much more precious: the construction of a civilization in which solidarity reigns and is based upon the recognition that we are all members of the same human family, regardless of the differences of culture, skin color, or religion.”

While there will be favorites for many people, it is good to know that the Catholic Church will have a number of outstanding men and women representing the U.S. and their faith. One favorite is Simone Biles, a gymnast, who has the age of 19, has already won more gold medals than anyone else in the history of the sport. And although she cannot wear a rosary while competing, she says she often prays the rosary beforehand.

In fencing competition, watch for Katharine Holmes, who grew up attending the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, DC. When asked how her faith helped her train and prepare for competitions at the global level, Holmes replied:

Particularly this year while qualifying  for the Olympics, I had an almost ongoing conversation with God, constantly asking for reassurance and strength that I could do it, that I really could qualify, that I could keep going. When things were really getting rough, I remembered a line from ‘Chariots of Fire’ in which, when talking about running, Eric Liddell said, ‘God made me  for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure.’ This is largely how I feel about my fencing. God gave me such a gift through and in this sport and in following my dreams, I feel as if I am living the life He wished for me, utilizing all that He blessed me with.

Katie Ledecky is part of the incredibly successful U.S. swim team; She holds a slew of records, and this year will be competing in the 200, 400, and 800-meter freestyle. She is very grateful for the support she has received from the parish communities and her Catholic teachers.

My Catholic faith is very important to me. It always has been and it always will be. It is part of who I am and I feel comfortable practicing my faith. It helps me put things in perspective.

I do say a prayer – or two – before any race. The Hail Mary is a beautiful prayer and I find that it calms me.

Joe Maloy competes in the Olympic triatholon, and recently posted on his Facebook page: My … Catholic teachers, coaches and classmates taught me what it meant to have faith, to work for ideals, and to use that work to make the world a little better.”

While not competing, Fr. Leandro Lenin Tavares will be an important part of the Olympic games for the Rio athletes. He is coordinating the very first interreligious center at the Olympic village.

We hope that the center will encourage harmony and unity among different countries and among different religions,” Father Tavares told Catholic News Service.

He said the center would be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, from July 24-Aug. 24 for Olympic athletes and their delegations and Sept. 1-21 for Paralympic athletes and delegations.

The center will have five meeting rooms, each occupied by one of the five faiths chosen by the International Olympic Committee: Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. The Catholic Church will represent the Christian faith.

The center will host not only group meetings and Masses but also will offer individual guidance to those who seek religious support.

In the Catholic space, Masses will be held in Spanish, Portuguese and English on a daily basis, but Father Tavares said there would be priests who speak also French and Italian, for individual or group support. He said some delegations have chosen to bring with them their own religious leader, and that they will also be able to use the interreligious center for their spiritual needs.

Let us pray that all the athletes are able to compete safely, with great comradery, and that the Catholic Olympians in particular are good ambassadors for the Faith. May they all remember the words of St. Paul, who reminds us that we all have a race to run: toward Heaven:

For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.I have competed well; I have finished the race;I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day,and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance. (2 Tim: 4:6-8)

hope

Do Not Lose Hope, For God Will Reign

St. Paul tells us that there are three things that truly matter: faith, hope and love. We must, as Catholics, not only assume these exist in our lives, we must constantly cultivate them. Like a tender garden in our soul, faith, hope and love must be sown, watered, saved from choking weeds, and strengthened by our daily attendance.

Hope. St. Paul tells us that, even when we are in affliction, we must hope. Indeed, affliction produces hope, through endurance and character. There is nothing that should separate us from our hope in Jesus Christ.

And all that is good and right and true. But then we watch the news or see another daily horror visited over and over again on social media. Violence and bloodshed and children missing and injured and those sent to help denigrated. The weeds begin to creep in, intertwining with hope, suffocating hope from the light it needs to survive.

But that is not the end. The weeds and the violence and the sense of abandonment are not the final word. Christ is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. He is our answer, the Light our garden needs. We are not meant to be left alone, isolated, bereft in a garden that no longer produces good, but is now only an abandoned lot that no one claims.

Father Luis Espinal, S.J. knew this. Our little plot of hope needs our attention, now more than ever. Fr. Espinal gave us just the prayer we need.

There are Christians
Who have hysterical reactions
As if the world had slipped out of God’s hands.
They are violent
As if they were risking everything.

But we believe in history.
The world is not a roll of the dice
On its way toward chaos.
A new world has begun to happen
Since Christ has risen.

Jesus Christ,
We rejoice in your definitive triumph
With our bodies still in the breach,
Our souls in tension;
We cry our first “Hurrah!”
Till eternity unfolds itself.

Your sorrow now has passed.
Your enemies have failed.
You are the definitive smile for humankind.

What matter the wait now for us?
We accept the struggle and the death,
Because you, our love, will not die!

We march behind you on the road to the future.
You are with us. You are our immortality.

Take away the sadness from our faces;
We are not in a game of chance.
You have the last word!

Beyond the crushing of our bones,
Now has begun the eternal “Alleluia!”
From the thousands of openings
In our wounded bodies and souls,
There now arises a triumphal song!

So teach us to give voice
To your new life throughout the world,
Because you dry the tears of the oppressed forever,
And death will disappear.

crazy for God

Crazy For God, Trusting In Christ

One thing many saints have in common is, well, they are a little over the top. One might look at things they’ve done and think, “That’s crazy!” Who in their right mind would sail across an ocean to uncharted territory in order to bring the Gospel to a hostile and dangerous people? What kind of people would joyfully sing on their way to their own execution? And it’s a little weird, isn’t it, to strip down completely naked in a very public place, disavow your wealth and head off to preach the Gospel? Crazy, right?

Indeed, our world thinks such behavior is crazy. As Catholics, however, we don’t belong to this world. We belong to the Kingdom of God. And what might seem totally crazy in this world (like allowing yourself to be nailed to a cross) makes perfect sense in the Kingdom of God. As Catholics, we walk by faith and not by sight.

Justo Gallego knows that people call him crazy. He says that he is just trusting in Christ. For 53 years, he has been nearly single-handedly building a cathedral near Madrid, Spain. Not a little chapel in his backyard: a cathedral.

It’s crazy to abandon your business, and follow a Man who promises to make you fishers of men. It’s crazy to say “yes” to becoming the Mother of the Messiah when an angel visits you. It’s crazy to build an ark, or to care for the poorest in the streets of Calcutta. Remember, though: we are people of the Kingdom of God. Maybe it’s time to show this world what it’s like to trust in God, regardless of how crazy it might make us look.

Here is Justo Gallego’s story:

peace

Finding Peace In Troubled Times

Humans crave peace and security. We want to have that feeling of a small child, gathered up in a parent’s arms, knowing  that all in that little world is well.

That sense of peace will never be here, in this world, for long. As sad as that is, it is the truth of a fallen world. And no one can escape it. We will all be touched by something bad, even evil. Our world is filled with grief, injustice, poor health, war … we hope it will never touch our lives’ or that of a loved one, but it will.

As Catholics, what do we do? How do we handle anxiety and grief, serious harm and grave injustice? Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, spent his life answering these questions. A priest of the order of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Fr. Groeschel was also a psychologist and a retreat master. He knew, from years of experience of counseling people, what lay heavy on their hearts. He wrote a book called Arise From Darkness: What to do when life doesn’t make sense that tackles the questions of hearts that ache and souls that grieve.

He tells the reader that true peace comes from trust in God, but he also cautions that this trust in God does not mean everything will always be okay.

It means that, whatever happens, we believe that God is there with us and that, if we cling to him, he will bring good out of evil, even out of the evil that he has only permitted to happen. I must make up my mind now that in the darkest hour of life, I will believe that God is with me. And I believe that he will be with you and all who turn to him and even with those who do not know enough to turn to him. This life at its best or worst passes quickly, but God is always there.

There is not situation so dark that God’s grace cannot shine through. Right now, there are parents mourning the loss of a child to violence. That is a cruel and horrid thing to face. Yet, as they grieve, their neighbors and friends are feeding them, sitting with them, running errands. This is God’s grace.

Right now, there are men and women in uniform fighting for the freedoms we hold dear, and that we believe all people should share. They stand in harm’s way for all of us. Many are far from home, living in uncomfortable conditions. They serve proudly; they volunteered to do this for us. This is God’s grace.

Right now, there is a child battling cancer. They must deal with the side effects of powerful drugs, endure long days and nights in the hospital, and the loss of childhood innocence. Yet, there are gentle hands that care for them, doctors and nurses who work long shifts but always seem to have a smile for their little patient. Volunteers stop by to play video games or take the child for a walk. That is God’s grace.

Things are not always okay. In fact, most of the time they are not. What must we do in times of trouble? First and foremost, we must pray. Pray for peace in our own hearts and in the world. Pray that all people realize the presence of God in their lives. Then, when we have prayed, we go out into the world and we share the truth that God’s peace is us all, and especially with those who need it most.

Bishop Robert Barron

Are You A “Beige” Catholic?

Beige is pretty boring. It’s an easy choice for paint. Throw on a pair of beige pants because it won’t clash. But, being a beige Catholic should never be an option, says Bishop Robert Barron.

Catholics in America today need to find ways to engage the culture with truth, and avoid ‘beige Catholicism’ that seeks to be dominated by the culture, Bishop Robert Barron said Thursday.

‘Beige Catholicism,’ the bishop said, is the ‘dominance of the prevailing culture over Catholicism,’ where Catholics are ‘too culturally accommodating’ and ‘excessively apologetic.’

Yesterday was the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul. No one could accuse them of a “beige” faith. No, they were bold. They might have been shaking in their shoes occasionally, but they preached the Gospel with fervor and zeal. In all honesty, no saint is “beige.” The men and women who are the Church’s faith heroes stand tall in the Truth of Christ, even when everyone around them is saying (like Pontius Pilate), “What is truth?

Bishop Barron says that “beige” Catholicism allows the culture to set the agenda for the Church, rather than having Christians engage the culture with Truth. He, too, used the saints as examples.

Instead, he suggested, ‘the question is not whether the Church ought to engage in a dialogue with the wider culture, but rather, how?’ And for this, the Church can look to the centuries of saints who successfully dialogued with the culture of their day while still proclaiming Jesus Christ, he said, giving examples like St. Paul and St. Augustine.

The saints did not fall into the modern trap of letting particular worldly experiences ‘measure doctrine,’ he said. Rather, they had a Christo-centric dialogue where, as St. Paul wrote in his epistle to the Colossians, ‘in Him [Jesus] all things were created, things visible and invisible’ and ‘He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.’

He goes on to acknowledge that our culture tells us that faith should be a private affair. We are constantly told not to “push our beliefs” on other people. Yet, we cannot live a true life of faith in private, locked in our houses, cowering. No, our faith must be a constant revolution, a radical way of living that speaks to everyone with whom we interact. Bishop Barron points to the example of the papacy of St. John Paul II:

St. John Paul II set an example of this when he praised the Western human rights tradition, Bishop Barron said.

The Pope did not endorse the modern belief of human rights as grounded in ‘desire,’ he explained. Rather, he grounded human rights in ‘every individual’ being ‘a subject of inviolable dignity and worth, and from this identity flow rights and a claim to justice.’

In taking the existing human rights tradition and elevating it, Pope John Paul II was ‘transforming water into wine’ in ‘assimilating a key feature of secular culture into the organic life of the Church,’ Bishop Barron said.

Let us truly examine our faith; are we too timid? Too “beige” when we are “in the world?” We must be willing, like St. Paul in the early Church and St. John Paul II in our own time to truly engage culture and society with the Truth that is Christ Jesus.

hope

‘The Religion Of Maximum Hope Born Of Despair’

Andrei Sinyavsky was an interesting man. Not the type of “interesting man” who sells us beer as he sits, surrounded by beautiful women. No, Sinyavsky was interesting in that he spoke the truth in a time and place where doing so could cost one’s life.

Sinyavsky was a writer in Soviet Russia. In 1966, he was sentenced to hard labor for “anti-Soviet activities” and for his “pro-Zionist” opinions (he wrote under a Jewish pseudonym.) He considered himself a Christian, but primarily a writer and promoter of freedom. Yet the imprint of faith was found his work. He once said, “The text of the gospels explodes with meaning. It radiates significance, and if we fail to see something, this is not because it is obscure, but because there is so much …”

He writes of faith like that of a foot soldier: one whose faith has been tested and found true. He has no illusions of Christianity being a faith of false cheerfulness or of gripping drama. It is not a play that once seen, sends the audience home thinking that they’ve seen something entertaining, but not terribly meaningful. No, Sinyavsky knows that to be a Christian is to be embattled in this world. Just as some would judge a soldier rushing into battle to be a fool rather than brave, so to the Christian.

Look at them, the heroes of Christendom. You won’t find many prudent ones among them. Their story is a long succession of martyrdoms and deaths … They are soldiers, displaying their scars and wound to the world as decorations.

And who enlists with them? People of all nations, the scum of the earth, even criminals, but always those who have taken the cross. Anyone can join: the ignorant, the sinful – provided he is ready to throw himself into the battle. If is the religion of maximum hope born of despair.

Is there any better symbol of that “hope born of despair” than Christ on the cross? We Christians stand with one foot in the grief and despair of Good Friday and another foot in the bloom of hope on Easter morn.

And so, we rise again to battle the evil of this world. We join the ranks of Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Paul, Dorothy Day: fools for Christ, heroes for Christendom. We dare to hope in a world of despair because we know Christ, and trust in His promise of everlasting life.