I’ve been trying to keep up with news and thoughts by and about Catholics on Facebook. However, I’m starting to feel somewhat disappointed. It is naive to believe
that one is going to find much that is worthwhile on Facebook; but occasionally one runs into another person who thinks with clarity and shares his or her thoughts in such a way that encourages us to rise to higher moral ground and to a more intense life of virtue and prayer.
Having said this, I must confess that it has been a great disappointment to find the many priests and consecrated religious who post on Facebook talk about every social and civil ill, encourage people to rise in protest, at times denounce those who do evil, but something is obviously lacking from their posts. God, Jesus, the Immaculate, prayer, the perfection of charity and atonement for one’s sins and those who don’t do penance. These are never mentioned.
A good example of this gap in “Catholic” posts is found in discussions on discrimination and racism. Since the US elections several Catholic bloggers have taken to the Internet to denounce racial discrimination and other forms of discrimination, be due to religion, sex, sexual orientation or gender-dysphoria. They have denounced politicians, Church hierarchy, business men and women, and other members of society for behaviors that are often cruel and unnecessary, or at times for failing to speak up for the voiceless.
Another important area of life in which we find protesting, finger pointing and even name calling is in religion. We have politicized religion to such an extent that we now speak of fellow believers using popular political jargon: liberals and conservatives or novus ordo and traditionalists.
Here too, the language is very often offensive. At times, it offends because it is vulgar and sometimes it offends because words are used to assassinate someone’s character. They don’t simply describe an immoral behavior or a statement that contradicts absolute truth. These are words that encourage hatred.
It is important for all of us to be aware of injustices, abuses and disregard for God and man. When priests and consecrated religious brothers or sisters write only about the evils and don’t mention what the Scriptures, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium have to say about these things, we fail our people. People have a right to expect clergy and religious to refer to faith to enlighten human life. We don’t become priests or religious to be social workers or activists. Ordination and consecrated life are not essential to the work of an activist. Conviction is what matters.
I encourage clergy and religious who post on Facebook and in blogs to remember that faith enlightens reason. Reason enlightened by faith strengthens convictions. Christ did not come into the world to lead men into a godless revolution. His followers were to be guided by their faith. Their faith shed light on the rightness and wrongness around them. Then they denounced what was wrong and defended what was right. But they always proclaimed the faith that enlightened them. Many were martyred for doing so, but there were more converts than martyrs.
Let us look at the world, including the Church, through the eyes of faith. Let faith help us see what is good and what is evil. Let faith supply the courage to fight for good and against evil. Most importantly, never forget to share the faith that drives us, lest others see us as simple social activists or worse.
We who are priests or consecrated men and women have committed our lives to living according to the faith. The Church has charged us with the duty to proclaim the perfection of charity and the Kingdom of God. The first step in serving God is to find Him. The search for God is the search for truth. We must begin by discerning what God has called each of us to do and how God wants us to go about it. For priests and religious, the call is not a call to godless social work or godless political activism.
We must never give up and never surrender our awareness of God’s presence in human affairs. Going into battle for purely human reasons or as some say, for the sake of justice alone, is not the Gospel. Christ exemplifies true justice. The exercise of evangelical justice leads man back to the Father. Christian justice and renewal is built on faith and preached with courage. There is nothing courageous in insulting another person or group of people. There is no hope when God is not part of the discussion for justice.
a private relationship between the person who makes the vow, the people in his life and God. God does not call people into private relationships with him to the exclusion of everyone else. Even hermits, such as the Carthusians, embrace the cross in silence and solitude for the benefit of the Church as well as their benefit.
something different from the rest of the baptized. He promises to do the same, but more perfectly or as close to perfection as is possible for him. In doing so he becomes a sign of life in the Kingdom of God.
cartwheels to save us. He gives us the Scriptures. He gives us Himself through the Incarnation and the Eucharist. He shares His life with us through the sacraments. And he places many other sources of grace in the middle of the marketplace for the salvation of his people.
rejecting the grace that God wishes to share with us through these states in life.
rty and obedience to learn how to think and act with a pure heart, how to let go of the many things, people and places that redirect our attention away from God and we don’t need to be in vows to be bound to obey God as he reveals His will to us through Sacred Scripture, Jesus Christ and the Church.
Those bound by a vow of obedience are to be the models of submission to the will of God, not the only people bound to submit to God’s will.
the
St. Francis of Assisi died on the evening of October 3, 1226; that is, 790 years ago. Nonetheless, he remains very much alive in the Church and the world today.
Today, we are about one million around the world. No one really knows how many groups of Franciscans there are in the world. The family grew so much that it was impossible to keep it under one superior general and to govern everyone with the same expectations. Diversity in cultures, languages, political conditions and even geography made it necessary to breakdown into smaller communities that could be more easily governed and who were more cohesive.
political persecutions, Church politics, poverty, wars, disease, misunderstanding, rejection, martyrdom, even heresy.
should have been wiped out during the Protestant Reformation, maybe the Reign of Terror, Nazism, Communism, or the Americanist Heresy. The fact is that the Franciscan family is alive and growing.
descendants are not just another group in the Church. We are a prophetic statement for believers and unbelievers alike. We foreshadow the triumph of Christ the King over all the odds and a new springtime for the Church.
According to his parents’ and brother’s memories, Maximilian was typical pre-adolescent who had the ability to get under people’s skin like most kids in that age group. His mother often cried out in despair, “What’s to become of you Raymond? Note: He was born Raymond Kolbe. But there was something special about this apparent little magnet for trouble. His parents had taught him to pray. As a child, he knelt before Our Lady and asked her, “What is to become of me?” Our Lady gave him a choice between a crown of martyrdom and a crown of purity. Raymond chose both.
First for youth – St. John Paul told the youth of the world, “Do not be afraid of Jesus Christ.” When Our Lady offered Raymond a choice between martyrdom and purity, he chose both. We think of this story and we swoon over this wonderful little boy who was so pious and so holy. We completely miss what God wants to teach us. Those who struggle, as did Raymond, are also called to a life of virtue and sacrifice. Prefabricated saints don’t need to practice heroic virtue or make heroic sacrifices. Sinners do.
remained open to the God of surprises rather than planning out their children’s lives in advance and trying to steer them into careers and marriages without consulting God’s plan for them. They educated their children in the faith, provided the academic education available to them and offered them guidance along the way. But they never owned their children. Their children belonged to God. When Christ called Raymond to become Brother Maximilian, it may have not been what Mr and Mrs Kolbe expected or planned, but they trusted. If this was truly the voice of God calling their son, he would be safe and they could offer him no better assurance of his happiness and salvation. If it was simply an illusion of youth, God would open their son’s eyes to the folly of his choice in life. Again, they trusted.
The lesson to be learned is that even when we are unsure what God wants from our children, if the choice is not a sinful one or a danger to to self or others, we can stand back and let the Immaculate guide. She can only guide our children to her Son. Her GPS is locked on Christ as the compass is locked on the North Pole. There is nothing to fear and much to be gained.
on TV at 7PM. That was time for evening prayer. Then there were night prayers that were said at bedtime. The very first prayer that I learned to say was the Lord’s Prayer. Because I grew up in a bilingual home, my mother made sure that I could pray it in two languages. After that, other prayers were added, including prayers at the table.
hy man choose celibacy and chastity over a woman?” Another popular question, “How can you live without a woman?”
can love another person and be intimate. However, when he experiences the love of God, he is filled with peace, interior silence, joy, and courage that he has never experienced. His life is different and he wants more. He cannot turn back to the love and intimacy of human romance, not because human romance is bad, but because he has found something even better than good. He has found Him who is the perfect lover: God.
How does he know this? He no longer question himself or his relationship. He is truly loved by God and he freely returns that love. He no longer wonders whether his beloved will change his mind. His relationship is no longer about liking what he feels or what the other feels for him.
3.
Franciscans of Life 
