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The Sky is Falling

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Warm ash falls from the tops of buildings as the brightest light imaginable makes our pupils dilate to the size of a pen head. There is a heat that can only be described as that of a blazing furnace built for forging swords of old. This sounds like the opening paragraph of a book about the end of the world, but really it’s just me imagining what the end of the world might be like.

There is a lot of talk today about the end of the world. As our culture seems to deteriorate more and more we can’t help but wonder where all of this is going and how fast. The optimist in me immediately reminds myself that there have been many times that cultures have thought the world was ending, but it didn’t. Whether the end of the world is near or not, a question that we just don’t know the answer to, I think our response to the world today should be one of optimism.

It is easy to look around and feel like the sky is falling around us, but the Gospel today reminds us that, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.”

Today in the Church we could look at the situation and get depressed about the slew of people leaving the Church but what is that going to get us? Instead, the Gospel reminded me today that I am one of the disciples. I am called to go out during this time where the harvest can be so abundant, but I need to go and till the soil. I think that is a call for all of us.

I am reminded of that iconic scene from the Lord of the Rings:

“Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know.
It’s all wrong
By rights, we shouldn’t even be here.
But we are.
It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you.
That meant something.
Even if you were too small to understand why.
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.
I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.
Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

I don’t know about you but that scene gets me amped up. I get excited that every person I meet is another chance to share the love of Christ. I get excited that there are people out there who really want to know the truth and I can present it to them. I get pumped about learning new things about my neighbors and entering into their experience.

The point is that we are all called to be disciples and to till the soil. When we think about the daunting task ahead of us do we fall into despair and immediately think about the end of the world or do you think more like Sam? I pray that I can be a Sam. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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The Wedding Feast

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I absolutely love when God’s love and our relationship with him are described in wedding terms. I especially love when those terms include food. Think back to the most delicious wedding reception you have ever attended. For me, it was my own. We found a place to cater our wedding that had the absolute best wedding food I have ever had. We had pulled pork sandwiches, chicken teriyaki skewers, and fancy mac and cheese. Instead of dry chicken and boiled vegetables, we had comfort food specifically because we wanted people to enjoy it and have a really good time.

The beauty of food is that it brings people together. We all have a favorite family recipe that we love to bring to events or family gatherings. We all have that Aunt or Uncle who is so good at cooking that they could start their own restaurant. We just celebrated the 4th of July. Have you ever noticed that every major holiday has a feast as the hallmark of the celebration? We come together around food.

It is no different with our communal relationship with Christ. The Mass is people from all different backgrounds coming together and sharing in a meal, but this meal does not leave us wanting more or hurting from overeating. This meal gives us eternal life. St. Francis de Sales once said, “When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth’s sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food.”

Jesus is our food and we can experience him here and now, but we also long for the fulfillment of the wedding feast of the lamb, we all long for heaven. Or at least we should. As Christians, we should groan in hunger for our future heavenly feast. If we don’t then perhaps we should fast more. This is something I want to do more in my life. Fasting allows us to feel hunger, and that hunger can remind us that we hunger to be perfectly united with God.

As we all rest from eating during the holiday, let’s try to make one tangible decision to fast in the hopes that we will be reminded of how much we hunger for God. This could be as simple as giving up salt on your meals for a week or something bigger like fasting every Wednesday and eating nothing but bread and water. You know where you are at in your relationship with God. What is going to help you take the next step towards God, the next step closer to the wedding feast where we will no longer hunger or thirst? From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Longing for Spiritual Food

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God communicates in different ways to different times, but the core message remains; a message of love. In the Old Testament God the Father spoke to the Prophets, in the New Testament the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and after the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles at Pentecost the Holy Spirit has been guiding us and the Church ever since.

Though we can see these real examples of each person of the Trinity working in specific times of history, every person of the trinity is present with us all throughout our lives. One of my favorite parts of the Catechism is where it says, “God is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.”

Our destiny is to share intimately in the relationship of God, but that destiny starts today. We can start to enter into that relationship here and now. The Father loves us and we can experience him through our prayer. The Son loves us through the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Spirit loves us through the Sacraments and our openness. We do not have to wait until the end of our lives for our destiny to start to become realized.

I like to think of this in relation to food. I love cooking and I love eating so most of my analogies are food based. Haha. Think of eating your favorite food. You have the taste and goodness of it instantly, but you don’t experience the fullness of it until it has been digested and used for energy. In the same way, we can taste the love of God in a very real way here on this earth, and we long for the fullness of that love to be realized at the end of time.

One time when I was on a work trip we stopped for dinner and I had these bacon wrapped dates that changed my life forever. Ever since tasting those delicious little pieces of perfection I have longed for the day when I can get back to that restaurant and try them again. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we treated our relationship with the Trinity in the same way? That we tasted God every week in the Mass and then longed for him until we could receive again. With this mindset, Mass stops being a chore and starts becoming something we look forward to every week, the same way I look forward to getting back to that restaurant. But the food God gives will give us eternal life. I know I can be more aware of this in every moment of my life.

One of the most helpful things I have heard about the spiritual life came from The Wild Goose Series. Fr. Dave Pivonka encourages us to simply say, “Come Holy Spirit,” throughout the day. This helps us not only to experience the love of God but also to help us be aware that we should long for the day when we are united perfectly with God in heaven. He longs to be united fully to us. Let us hunger for the same. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Love One Another

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Perhaps the most quoted Gospel of all time shot off the page to me with new meaning as I sat in Mass on Saturday evening. We have all heard, love one another; that’s like the basics. Have you ever let something so simple lose its weight because of its simplicity?

Our priest took this familiar passage in a bit of a different direction that made me think. He said if we all acted like we were supposed to, the whole world would be converted. After all, everyone will know we belong to Christ because of our love for one another. These are words directly from Christ himself.

It really made me think. Have I done this in my life? I know I’m supposed to love God and love my neighbor, but has my love for others been a beacon that lets people know who I belong to? I hope it has.

How about you? Has your love been infectious to the point that a total stranger knows who your savior is? Again, these are the basics. People sometimes complain that homilies are too often about loving others and not about morality. This may be true at times but look around you. The fact that the whole world isn’t converted means we still have not grasped the basics.

We can all love better. That’s just the simple reality. I love the teachings of Saint John Paul II because he really set up a major shift in thought from objective truths to personal experience. He did not get rid of the objective facts but brought us to them through our own personal experience. We know God is love because we have experienced it. This is a model of evangelization that I have found very effective. Until someone experiences love it is hard to talk to them about the objective truths of morality, but once love is experienced, morality starts to make sense, it wells up from within as opposed to being edicts forced from without.

Doctrine and dogma have their place, but we have not even begun to grasp the basics. We need both. This is my challenge this week and a good reminder as I sat there in front of the Eucharist. We should always be living in such a way that people know we are Christians by our love, and it shows through our moral actions. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Does this Shock You?

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In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus giving one of the hardest teachings in the bible. He is explaining the teaching of the Eucharist, that bread and wine really are turned into his body and blood. When the disciples try to understand this with human reasoning, they fall short. They can’t understand what Jesus is telling them. And then Jesus says these important words, “Does this shock you?”

I think this is so beautiful. Whenever we are met with misunderstanding or confusion it’s typically because we have human reasoning. This can get us pretty far, but the inner truths of God cannot be fully explained by human reason alone, we have to ask for the supernatural virtue of faith.

Now faith doesn’t mean just blindly following things we cannot understand. Faith and reason are interconnected, but when we have doubts or struggles with a teaching of the church, or with the church in general, we must ask God to enlighten our intellect to be able to see that which is not obvious to the human person.

If the disciples in the Gospel had asked for this grace they would have seen with new eyes and not left Jesus and returned to their old ways. Even the apostles struggled with this, but their response was different. Even though the supernatural mysteries of God confused them, they said, “Where else would we go?”

When problems arise in the Church, when human beings seem to try to take us down, when moral teachings are difficult to live, we need to ask for faith. One of the main areas to receive this grace is through the Eucharist. This teaching that was so hard for the early disciples to believe is the very teaching that gives us the grace to believe it.

The Eucharist is the source of our faith because it is Jesus’ love active here on this earth. Next time you have a doubt or concern or problem with something in the Church, go to the Eucharist and rest in his love. It is the Eucharist that allows us to say, “Where else would we go?”

Here is one of my favorite songs, that explains how Peter denied Jesus and doubted his love. Let us all pray that when we are put to the test we are able to believe through the supernatural gift of faith.

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Abundance

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Faith- what’s the first thing that pops into your mind when I say that word. Faith! How about Church? What’s the first thing you think of? How about rules? What comes to mind then?

We are all at a different place in our beautiful journey to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that beats and burns for love of us. I know sometimes for me my faith can seem stagnant or centered around study. I love theology so I actually enjoy a super dry theological teaching, but if I never get beyond the teaching to the person than the study of God ends at study.

I know for some today their immediate thought of the Church is broken or wounded. We are going through a time of purification to be sure. Some people have a faith where it’s all about the laws and rules. Many need this structure, but if it stays at the level of rules, as opposed to the rules guiding you to the truth, then relationship doesn’t form as easily.

I think the same question could be asked of the Apostles in the Gospel today. If we were in that boat with them thousands of years ago what would they have said? At this point, they have the Holy Spirit and are preaching the love of Jesus with passion, but they still can’t even begin to grasp the true love of God. He doesn’t just want them to have a faith built on rules or study, but a faith of abundance.

He wants the laws to lead us to fullness just like the rules in a sport allow you to experience the fullness of the game. He wants us to obey his teaching, and experience a heart the bursts just like that net thousands of years ago. He wants us to trust and experience the depths of true love.

When was the last time you were bold and asked God to fill you to the brim with his grace? When was the last time you obeyed the teachings of Christ and were brought deeper into an understanding of his love and goodness? So now stop and actually think about it. It’s easy to read a blog. It’s harder to stop for a second and allow the words to lead to deeper reflection. Where is your net today? Are you full, is your net rotting from sitting in the sun without use for too long, or is your net bursting at the seams? This Easter season is the perfect time to ask for the grace that comes from the resurrection.

“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” -St. John Paul II

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Faith in His Mercy

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Today is one of my favorite days in the liturgical calendar, Divine Mercy Sunday, and the readings paint a beautiful picture for how we should receive the mercy of God. These readings are largely based on signs, cures, miracles, and wonders that impart God’s grace on the person.

This is what we would call a sacrament, a physical sign of an invisible grace. Here in the Gospel, we hear Jesus implementing the sacrament of confession. He gives the power to forgive sins, to impart the grace of God on his people, and to restore them into his life. This may have been a little easier to understand if we were actually there, but sometimes we feel like St. Thomas who has trouble believing in something he cannot see. We don’t trust that God would forgive us because of all the things we have done wrong. We maybe don’t feel worthy of forgiveness and mercy.

This is why Jesus instituted the sacrament of confession. He knew we would struggle with things we cannot see, so he gave us a physical way that we can see and be assured of God working, that is through the priest. What happens in confession? We go in, we tell our sins to the priest, and then we say an act of contrition and are forgiven with words spoken. Of course, God can forgive us in any way he chooses, but he CHOSE to do it through the sacrament of confession. He chose to use a priest as a physical sign of his love and mercy.

I remember confessions where I have been scared to death, I remember ones that have been life-changing, I remember ones that I have felt the same afterward, but the thing that was the same with all of them is I had an actual sign and assurance that God did forgive me. I can trust in his words that he gave us so many years ago.

Below is a prayer that has helped me so much to prepare for confession. If it has been a while for you, I promise you won’t be sorry if you go. Jesus is waiting in the person of the priest to give you a physical sign of his real forgiveness. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

“I glorify you in making known how good you are towards sinners, and that your mercy prevails over all malice, that nothing can destroy it, that no matter how many times or how shamefully we fall, or how criminally, a sinner need not be driven to despair of [God’s] pardon. It is in vain that your enemy and mine sets new traps for me every day. He will make me lose everything else before the hope that I have in your mercy.” St. Claude de la Colombiere

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Love Revealed and Made Real

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I have been writing a lot about marriage in my posts recently, partly because I was recently married and the realities and beauties of marriage are fresh in my mind and experience, but also because marriage is the sign Saint Paul uses in Ephesians to explain the relationship between Christ and the Church.

This analogy can go both ways, in looking at a proper and holy marriage we see a sign for the relationship between Christ and the Church, and if we look at the relationship between Christ and the Church, Christ giving his body for his bride on the cross, we see an example of what a holy marriage should look like.

This sign, the cross, is what Satan will try to attack vehemently because it reminds him that he lost. Satan knew on Easter morning that Christ conquered sin and death, he literally rose above it. The only thing that Satan can do now is try to attack the sign of Jesus’ love that he showed 2,000 years ago. But the cross was not just a sign of his love. It was not just a revelation of God’s plan, but a realization of it as well. God’s plan was revealed on the cross and made real on the cross, in the sense that redemption is now a reality in all of us.

So it is with the sacraments of the Catholic Church. When Christ ascended into heaven he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us through the seven sacraments. These sacraments are not just signs of God’s love to his people but they also give grace. They not only reveal God’s love but they make real God’s love. They go beyond the sign to change reality itself.

Now think back to marriage. We hear in scripture that the two shall become one. This verse does not mean man and woman literally become one body, for they are still separate. If the husband dies, the woman remains. So they are not biologically one, or one in their being. But they are morally one, meaning that their thoughts, wills, and actions should form a oneness so they are no longer “me and you” but “we”.

However, the primary end of that “we” relationship is where two bodies create one. This happens when a man and a woman become a mother and father. Their bodies unite in such a way that a new creation is made that is of both the man and the woman.

Why is any of this important to Easter? Well, on Good Friday we just experienced Jesus giving up his body for his bride the Church in such a real way that Christ becomes the father and the Church becomes the mother of a brand new creation, through baptism.

“Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.” -2 Corinthians 5:17

What Christ did on the cross allows us to not only enter into a “we” relationship with Christ but to be born again through this relationship. His love is not just revealed, it is made real. It is revealed and realized through the sacraments. With this realization comes responsibility. Now we can no longer use our humanity as an excuse for sin. “Well, I am only human.” It is precisely because you are human that sin should no longer hold sway in your heart because Christ has made you a new creation. So go praise the Lord this day. Thank him for his love. Take that love out to the world. Soak up the graces of the sacraments. Be a sign to the world of the love of Christ. That is exactly the sort of thing a human would do. A human who has been redeemed. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

“For we are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.” -St. John Paul II

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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A Holy Procession

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Yesterday my beautiful bride and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary of marriage. People say your wedding day goes by so fast that you are lucky to get a piece of your cake. This was certainly true but there were parts that slowed down and are still just as clear in my memory today as when they happened months ago.

One of these moments was seeing my bride for the first time in her dress walking down the aisle. This moment seemed to freeze in time as I knew I was about to marry my best friend, I was about to embark on the most incredible journey, I was about to enter into a lifelong relationship of love.

Fast forward to today, Palm Sunday. I can’t help but think about that holy procession when thinking about Jesus in today’s first reading. Our Lord and Savior processes into the city, all eyes on him, everyone excited with anticipation of what the King of Kings will bring to their city.

The difference, of course, is that Jesus’ wedding to his bride the church does not consist in a beautiful ceremony, delicious food, and friends and family. His wedding to us all consists in giving up his very life for us so that we could have eternal life. When he rode into the city that day he knew full well what he was saying yes to. He was saying yes to suffer the crucifixion out of pure love for us all.

Whether you have been married or not, I encourage you to reflect on the thought of standing up on the altar today. Here comes Jesus, processing in. He is here for you. He is willing to give it all, in good times and bad, in sickness and health, until death. What is your answer to him during this holiest week? Will you say, I do?

If you say yes, where do you go from there? As I have learned in the past six months, it’s not enough to say the words, they have to be put into practice. We know that because we are made in the image of a God who is love, we have the capacity to love. But I think we often forget this about ourselves in today’s world. We do not find ourselves worthy of true love, we do not think we can be a good gift to another, we have degraded ourselves into thinking we are no better than the common animal and do not deserve what Jesus did for us.

St. John Paul II would disagree. In his letter to families, he wrote, “Human beings are not the same thing as the images proposed in advertising and shown by the modern mass media. They are much more, in their physical and psychic unity, as composites of soul and body, as persons. They are much more because of their vocation to love, which introduces them as male and female into the realm of the “great mystery”

Human beings are special, we have been created unique, and each of us has a certain way we have been called to love the world, a vocation of love. When we enter into and live out that vocation, according to St. John Paul II, we enter into the great mystery. What is that great mystery? Paul says it himself in scripture, it is the wedding feast of the lamb, the marriage of Christ and his church.

Know that you are worthy, know that you are loved, know that you are called to give that love to the world, and if you ever doubt it, look at the cross. Jesus processed in today to say I do. What will you say back?

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Neither Do I Condemn

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The Gospel reading today is much richer than the surface understanding that Jesus was merciful. Though his mercy is certainly shown in this verse, there is something deeper going on here that speaks to the level of God’s love and reminds us of Theosis, one of the most central teachings of the Catholic Church.

Here in this verse, Jesus states clearly that he who is without sin should cast the first stone. One by one everyone leaves, knowing they have all sinned. But then Jesus says the important words, “Neither do I condemn you.”

The same words that redeem this woman condemn Jesus himself. In saying he does not condemn her, he groups himself with those who have sinned. He takes on the sin of this woman and the sin of all those around her and though he could not be more different in his perfection, he associates with the sinner. Part of the reason that God became one of us is to take on our sin in order that we might rise above it. But not just rise above it to live according to the law, rise above it to the point that we can become divine.

God’s plan for us from the beginning was to participate intimately in his very divinity. Adam and Eve were set up for this beautiful destiny, but sin got in the way. The only way to pay back a blow against an infinite being is for that being to become one of us, or as scripture says “to become sin,” in order to redeem us.

But not just to redeem us, his love is so deep that he doesn’t just want to wipe away our sin. He wants to get his original plan back on track. He wants us to participate perfectly and completely in his divinity itself. He became sin so that we might become him. Or as the Catechism puts it, “God became man so that man might become God.” Our destiny is not only that of redemption but also of divinization.

When we get to heaven we will not just go back to the garden, we will go beyond. Scripture says there will be a new heaven and a new earth, not a return to the old. That sounds pretty great to me. As we journey through the pains of repentance during this Lent, remember that Jesus himself experienced these pains, even though he was innocent. He paid it all so we might eventually experience all of him. That is cause for rejoicing even through this penitential time. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Continual Conversion

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“Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

This quotation from today’s second reading is one of my favorites, so special to me that I decided to tattoo it on my arm. It is one of my favorite tattoo’s because it is a permanent reminder that I am called to be a saint on a daily basis.

I had a problem with testimonies growing up because they all seemed to be similar. They would typically start with a life of sin, there would be one moment of conversion that would change everything, and from then faith came easy. I didn’t like them mainly because I could not relate to this experience.

Maybe it’s my personality, but I have always been someone who has related more with small and consistent progress as opposed to one large event. I remember a time I got super motivated to eat healthier and went to Whole Foods and spent about $70 on a head of lettuce and some multivitamins. I got super intense and tried too much at once and ended up getting physically sick. Apparently changing from taco bell to lettuce immediately was just as much a shock to my body as consistently eating taco bell.

I found quickly that taking on too much too quick was not attainable and it has been this way in my spiritual life as well. Now don’t get me wrong, we all need a big wake up moment at times. But one of the main reasons I was in seminary with the TOR Franciscans is because St. Francis was all about constant conversion.

I know that I have been made new through my baptism, but the power of baptism and the grace from God work on a daily basis. Every day I have the choice to activate that grace in my life and do small things with great love. Consistent small acts then build and become larger as time goes on.

“Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

When I re-read this quote I am thankful for my baptism, but I am also thankful that I am made new every day through the grace of God that works constantly and consistently.

Lent is the perfect time to make grace visible through our good works. By fasting, serving, and loving, the grace we received at baptism is activated in such a way that people can see God working. That starts to change our world. What God is asking me is, “How have you been made new today through my grace and how will that change others?” Perhaps he is asking you the same. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

 

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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I Am Who Am

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I am who am! These simple yet profound words echoed through a cave thousands of years ago and have kept even the greatest theologians questioning.

Thomas Aquinas himself, one of the most influential doctors of the Church, wrote extensively on this subject and only began to scratch the surface of its meaning. What do these profound words spoken from God to Moses mean? Well, what we do know is that they mean that God is existence itself. He is the uncreated creator, that which makes things be, existence itself. Explaining God in relation to other created things does not do justice to Him, and yet this is the way we know to explain.

The Catholic Church calls this a mystery. Not a mystery in the sense that it is hidden or that we can’t know anything, for God has revealed certain things, but a mystery in the sense that it is not fully knowable to us until heaven.

What is fully knowable to us though is that every breath, every life, every gift, everything, even our very existence is due to God. He holds us into being. This should give us a little perspective during this Lenten season. I think we often approach Lent in a negative sense, in the sense that we should give something up or sacrifice something.

While it truly is a time for these things, it is also a time to realize that because we were made and are held into existence by a complete gift, that the only proper response to that gift is to give. We do not get to heaven in a box. Our beautiful faith teaches us that we gain salvation through the relationship with Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. And this salvific relationship is meant to be shared with the world. It is not enough to receive love and have it turn inward, love must turn outward and multiply.

This Lent, I encourage you to sit down for a few minutes and reflect on the words, I am who am. Reflect on what that means in your life and the gifts you have been given. Now, reflect on how you can turn and give. It might be as simple as telling a friend they are loved, or it might be as difficult as standing up for your faith when it is uncomfortable. Either way, don’t let this just be more words you read on a page. Let’s all think of one concrete way we can be a gift this week. Nothing is scarier to Satan than Christians uniting through relationship with Christ, and then sharing that relationship with the world. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.