This is miraculous! Jesus is really and truly present in the Holy Eucharist!
On January 20, a gas explosion destroyed a parish building at the Virgen de la Paloma Parish in Madrid, Spain. One newly-ordained priest died from injuries.
However, amidst all the destruction, a consecrated Eucharistic host was found completely intact!
The Spanish News outlet Aleluya reported that the Eucharist was found undamaged after the explosion inside a small golden monstrance. The tabernacle was completely destroyed.
I don’t know how the week was for you, but I spent a goodish part of it in a Detroit airport terminal – thank you, Delta. It was an instructive experience. I did not know, for example, that some airports have entire shops given over to selling “shapewear.” I did not know what “shapewear” was, either. Live and learn, I guess.
Fortunately, since we can work from anywhere these days, there was still plenty to be getting on with.
The case of Brebeuf Jesuit High School is an interesting one for a number of reasons.
One of the teachers entered a civil same-sex marriage, with a teacher at another Catholic school, as it happens. Indianapolis’ Archbishop Charles Thompson told both schools not to renew their contracts. The archdiocesan school complied, and Brebeuf did not.
Archbishop Thompson then revoked the school’s Catholic identity, which is about as close to a “nuclear option” as there is for these sorts of situations. This triggered a tense standoff with the Jesuit province that sponsors the school, who appealed to the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education.
It is understandable that Rome would prefer the school and the diocese reach a resolution, rather than have to impose one from on high. Any precedent the congregation might set would be almost certain to kick off an outraged response from the opposing side.
As the former archbishop of the diocese and a former secretary of the Vatican’s congregation for religious, Cardinal Tobin is, as one curial official told us, an “obvious and trustworthy” mediator for both sides, and this is not the first time the Vatican have asked him to step into a sensitive situation.
It’s also further evidence of Tobin’s reputation in Rome as a quiet, reliable force to call on. Tobin is often spoken of as the cardinal the Vatican calls when it wants to talk about America, and a man who creates solutions, not more problems.
His name is increasingly mentioned in conversations about a looming curial reshuffle, slated for this year. With the Congregations for Clergy and Bishops both expected to change leaders, the chances of Tobin making a move to Rome are not inconsiderable.Subscribe
Dying for help
This week saw yet another tragic example of doctors going to court to withdraw food and water from a man in a coma. Nothing so illustrates the culture of death as the growing inversion of the medical profession in many places, with killing now synonymous with curing for a terrifying number of doctors.
In this case, the Polish man, known as R.S. in court documents, had been in a coma since November, when he had a heart attack. Doctors in the U.K., where he lived, got court approval to essentially starve him to death. He died on Tuesday.
R.S. is the latest in a growing line of patients essentially sentenced to death by the British courts for the crime of being too ill to be worth caring for, joining the ranks of Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard.
Worse, the U.K. doctors resisted efforts to have him transferred to a hospital willing to care for him, despite efforts by the Polish government to repatriate the man. The story raises bitter echoes of the grotesque scene of police restraining the parents of Alfie Evans as they tried to take him out of the hospital to a helicopter waiting to take him for treatment at a Vatican hospital.
While there seems little prospect of the legal situation improving, JD noted this week that the English bishops had – at last – expressed some opposition to the prospect of doctors starving a man to death under cover of law:
“The Catholic Church continues to oppose the definition of assisted nutrition and hydration as medical treatment which has now become the basis of medical and legal decisions to withdraw assisted nutrition and hydration from patients. Providing food and water to very sick patients, even by assisted means, is a basic level of care,” the bishops noted.
The story of the Vatican finance scandal can be about as easy to follow as Finnegan’s Wake. We want you, our readers, to be able to follow this story as it keeps breaking — and it is going to keep breaking.
Here at The Pillar, we are committed to doing the long form, detail-heavy reporting on this scandal that we know can make a difference. As we go, we’ll keep producing explainers that break down all this coverage.
It also lays bare the, well, let’s call it “tangled” relationship between Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, the businessman who invested hundreds of millions of euros of the secretariat’s money for them, including in Torzi’s projects, with Torzi loaning Mincione’s company millions at the same time.
It was Mincione who sold the secretariat the London building for a total of 350 million euros, give or take, as part of the Vatican’s efforts to part ways with him. And it was Torzi’s job to broker the sale on the Vatican’s behalf.
But I’m sure it’s fine.
Last chance
This week, for the first time since 1960, no one was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. Most importantly for me, both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens failed to make it to Cooperstown, again.
Despite posting record-setting statistics throughout their careers, charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and contempt of Congress will forever link those players to the scandal of performance enhancing drugs.
Bonds took the career home run record off Hank Aaron, the recently deceased true legend of the game, in 2007. But the feat remains, in the minds of some Hall of Fame voters at least, tainted by the suspicion that he did so while loaded up with more steroids than a herd of prime Nebraska beef cattle. Allegedly.
Clemens similarly carved his name into the record books, if not fans’ hearts, with stellar career numbers, and with an equally impressive entry in the Mitchell Report on the illegal use of performance enhancers in the professional game.
They now have one more chance to make it into the Hall before their causes get kicked over to the veterans’ committee. I hope they fail, again and forever.
It’s been a hopeful sign that, despite the rolling heresies Major League Baseball has dreamed up recently (robot umpires, the universal DH, starting a runner on second in extra innings), the guardians of baseball immortality have acted to keep out two players who epitomize an era that still stains the sport’s soul.
Baseball means a lot to me. And, as a Cubs fan who grew up in the 80s and 90s, my interest in the game has always been more philosophical than competitive. How the game is played means a lot more to me than who wins any given contest. Baseball was, at times, a school of virtue for me.
My favorite player growing up was Andre Dawson. Although he’d had a few good years with the Expos, he showed up at Cubs spring training in 1987 with bad knees and a blank contract; offering, essentially, to play for free if the Cubs would sign him. It was, my grandfather told me, what humility looks like.
That season, Dawson won the home run derby and was National League MVP. That the Cubs finished in last place that year doesn’t matter, because the Hawk played the game with, as his teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg called it, respect.
Those players respected their teammates, their opponents, themselves, the fans, and the game. They lost games, but they played them the right way.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens won everything and respected nothing. There is no honor in their careers, and no virtue in their achievements. This is equally true of the cheating Houston Astr*s of recent years.
As men, I hope they all find redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life. As ballplayers, may they be forever cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth.
It seems like the whole Western world has hardened its heart to the voice of God.
In The Benedict Option, Rod Dreher spells out how a series of philosophical moves starting with William of Ockham boxed the secular West into a hopelessly godless corner. In his brilliant and important new book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman adds poetry, psychology, and science as antagonists in that story.
Their critiques are necessary but can end up making the reader feel helpless, as if the world faces an unassailable wall of misunderstanding that renders the voice of God unintelligible to our world.
The way the Gospel explains how the crowd reacted to Jesus is remarkable.
“The people were astonished by his teaching,” it says. “All were amazed and asked one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority.’”
We can imagine what that was like. It was like listening to Fulton Sheen, Mother Angelica, Bishop Robert Barron or your favorite YouTuber explain the teachings of Jesus Christ in new ways that uncover their astonishing layers of meaning.
Or it is like Mother Teresa explaining authentic charity as someone who has actually lived it; or St. John Paul II speaking on human freedom after emerging triumphant from a lifelong struggle with Naziism and Communism.
Every once in a while the voice of God pierces our outer defenses and takes us by surprise. But why aren’t we astounded daily by the Word of God?
The answer is in the Psalm, which says “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” It shows us the attitudes a softened heart has to have.
First, you need to actually see Jesus Christ as a savior, something that has become difficult in a secularized world.
The Psalm begins by inviting us to “sing joyfully” to the Lord, “acclaim the rock of our salvation,” and “come into his presence with thanksgiving.”
Today’s Gospel shows why those original listeners saw Jesus as a savior. The ancient world was hyper aware of the presence of demons; they knew that they were continually beset by supernatural villains.
Confronted with demonic possession, Jesus does none of the arduous and extensive exorcism procedures of his day. Instead, he simply says: “Quiet! Come out of him!” And the demons obey. This is clearly a new thing on the earth: a holy man greater than the prophets, master of the supernatural, coming to save us.
Our time is no less demon-vexed, but our problem is that rationalism has left us blind to the presence of the supernatural. If we understood how often the powers of hell seep into our world, we might appreciate our savior more, too.
Based on his reading of the Gospels and his understanding of psychology, Fulton Sheen explains three ways the signs of the demonic are prominent in our secularized world.
Demons revel in a love of nudity because they love to mock our animal nature, which they disdain, and which our world is obsessed with in immodesty and pornography.
Demons love violence because while they cannot harm God, they can harm his image and likeness in us — and from our movies and video games to abortion, war, terrorism, and rioting, our world is drenched in violence.
Last, demons love to sow division because they want to tear apart the bonds of Christ in marriage and in the very body of Christ which is the Church.
But Jesus “commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him;” in the Gospel and in our lives.
Next, you have to accept God as the shepherd of his people, which is utterly foreign to secularism.
Second, to harden not your heart you must “bow down in worship,” says Sunday’s Psalm, “and kneel before the Lord who made us” acknowledging that “we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.”
We find that extremely hard to do. But you can imagine how Jesus’ first audience did, too.
They were laboring under Roman rule, sick of paying taxes to a government that does objectionable things, crucifixion notable among them. They were hungry for an authentic expression of their faith, something better than what was offered by the Sadducees, who had cozied up to the Romans, or the Pharisees, who “tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but will not lift a finger to move them.”
They knew well that they could expect something more. God had promised them in today’s First Reading: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.”
When Moses first reported those words to the Israelites, they were revolutionary. A personal God who joined in their struggles to lead them out was something new. They had that in Moses and we have it in an infinitely greater way in Jesus Christ, through means that are impossible for materialists to accept: his sacraments, his word, and his body, the Church; each a material thing that he makes into a channel of supernatural grace.
Last, the Psalm says to try this: Instead of making your heart into a rock, trust the rock God gave you.
Here in the 21st century, we are in much the same situation as the Israelites were so long ago.
We don’t live under Egyptian or Roman rule, but we do live in a land that often barely tolerates our religion, while demanding we pay taxes to a government that does objectionable things, abortion notable among them.
We don’t have Sadducees and Pharisees, but we do have competing voices from the extremes of religious experience, one coaxing, “Relax your standards and accommodate with the world!” and the other shouting, “Nothing is ever good enough!” One group of Catholics aligns with the secular Left and doubts the Church because they think it’s too conservative; another aligns with the secular Right and mistrusts the Church because it’s too liberal.
It all amounts to what happened at Meribah, at Massah in the desert, when the Israelites refused to trust God’s promise to Moses and thought they knew better. They didn’t trust that God would provide water for them through the means he sent, a rock; and we don’t trust that God has provided for us in the rock he sent to us, the Church.
Interrupting both comes the one and only authentic voice of God. You can hear him in the words of St. Paul today: “I should like you to be free of anxieties.” You hear him in the Gospel, sternly commanding the spirits of death: “Quiet! Come out of him!”
God is speaking, everywhere. It may be harder to hear him in the 21st century, but when you do hear him, harden not your heart: Listen, trust, and follow.
Son of French aristocrats, orphaned at six years of age, twice dismissed from the French army, recklessly adventurous, the life of Charles de Foucauld was eventually seized by the love of Jesus. Not many years after his return to faith, Charles was ordained a priest and lived several years absorbed in prayer as a Trappist monk. Yet his personal love for the Lord now united to his zealous nature made complacency unthinkable. Brother Charles left the Trappist monastery and lived the last twenty-some years of his life essentially homeless without companions, dedicated to loving the Lord in the Eucharist and serving the needy with warm hospitality. It was clarity about the transformative power of the Eucharist that unleashed in him an unshakable confidence and love. For him, the Eucharist was simply “Jesus handing over His life for His people.” Blessed Charles de Foucauld shaped his life around this simple truth.
Blessed Charles de Foucauld is pictured in an undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy of I.Media)
My dear sons and daughters, I write to you now because we need the clear and simple faith in the Eucharist of Blessed Charles de Foucauld.
Many have shared with me the heavy grief they have carried during the COVID-19 pandemic at the loss of regular accessibility of the great Sacrament of the Eucharist. As a spiritual father and spouse of the Church, it grieves me to see the flock entrusted to my care suffer separation from the Lord whom I have dedicated my life to serve and to make present among His people. Deprivation of the Eucharist is deprivation of Christ. Whether it was due to my prudential decisions or yours, I am aware of the pain you have suffered. What is more, I know your grief does not stop there.
A recent Pew Research Center survey (July 2019) showed that most Catholics don’t believe in the Eucharist. Nearly seven-in-ten Catholics (69%) say they personally believe that, during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion “are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.” Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31%) say they believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” This report was a confirmation of what had long been known but not often voiced: there is a grave crisis of faith in the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God.
These are our own friends and family, our sons and our daughters. What suffering to see those we love not sharing our faith and devotion to our Redeemer.
This crisis of faith affects us all, not only from outside but also from within our souls. Doubt and mistrust are like a virus that spreads from heart to heart at an exponential rate.
A renewal of faith in the Eucharist is desperately needed!
My brother priests and deacons of the diocese, those for whom I have ever-increasing gratitude and affection, you, too, have suffered greatly the pain and confusion caused by this crisis of faith. You are the men who have “left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields” to serve the Lord at the Altar (Matthew 19:29). You have shouldered with Christ the weight of this loss and felt much of the grief our Lord felt as he wept for Jerusalem (cf. Luke 19:41ff).
Adding to our grief, all of us know Catholics who even before COVID regularly excused themselves from Sunday Mass. But our love of the Eucharist cannot be separated from the Sunday celebration of the Mass! As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, “The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and His Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life” (CCC 2177). Even before live-streamed Mass was commonplace, the centrality of the Lord’s Day in the life of Catholics has been dramatically diminishing for years.
What value does the Sunday Mass have? For a group of forty-nine Christians in the 4th century, it was fuel for life. Emperor Diocletian of Rome found these faithful believers guilty of celebrating Sunday Mass which had been outlawed. When they were asked why they broke the law, one member of the group, named Emeritus, spoke in response: “Sine dominico non possumus,” which our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once explained to mean, “without ‘Dominicum’ [Sunday], that is, without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live” (Angelus, 26 June 2011). Why did they feel so strongly?
For more than nine years I was blessed to observe and learn from the spiritual fatherhood of Pope Saint John Paul II as an assistant at the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. Permit me to share an exhortation he gave us nearly 22 years ago, expressing our faith in the Sunday Eucharist:
“From the beginning of my Pontificate, I have not ceased to repeat: ‘Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!’ In the same way, today I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday: Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. … The rediscovery of this day is a grace which we must implore, … so that we may respond concretely to the deepest human yearnings. Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human” (Dies Domini 7).
I wish to unite myself to the words of our late Pope: as the pandemic subsides over the coming weeks and months, I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday Mass! I invite you to implore from God the grace of rediscovering the joy and rest of the Lord’s Day.
My dear brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with love and care as your spiritual father, I call you to turn your hearts with renewed fervor to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and to unwavering fidelity in keeping holy the Lord’s Day every Sunday.
These are difficult times with health concerns and conflicting information about what is needed to remain healthy and to prevent the spread of disease. However, we all have a real need to find our security and life in Christ. Are we not in need of a Savior? Is He not the only Lord?
I wish to assist and accompany you to an ever-increasing knowledge, love, and commitment to this great gift of our God. To seek to do so in a short letter would not give due reverence to either the needs of our times or the thirst of our souls.
For this reason, I now would like to announce a forthcoming Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist.
Five years ago, I discerned there was a great need to write a substantial exhortation for Catholic men. Two years ago, I discerned a need to do the same for marriages and families of our diocese. These two documents have born and continue to bear much fruit.
The time is now to speak to the Heart of it all.
Another humble man with a great Eucharistic heart is St. Thomas Aquinas who wrote the familiar Eucharistic hymn, Tantum ergo, among many others. For the name of the forthcoming Exhortation I have chosen two words from the second line of this hymn of praise of the Eucharist: Veneremur cernui. It is difficult to translate these words, yet they capture the reverence we should foster: Let us venerate with body prostrated which are expressed in reference to the Great Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In my forthcoming Apostolic Exhortation, I wish to offer a thorough exploration of the Church’s faith on the Sunday Eucharist with a particular attention to the following:
The Gift of the Real Presence in the Eucharist
Eucharist as Sacrificial Offering and heavenly banquet
How the Eucharist unleashes peace, charity, and justice to our society
Ways for parishes and families to deepen their Eucharistic faith and love
Proper Disposition for the Reception of the Eucharist
How to reach out to friends and family who do not share our faith
You can expect this document to be made public on the Feast of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Thursday of the Sacred Triduum, which this year falls on the first of April.
In 1916, Blessed Charles de Foucauld was engaged in Eucharistic adoration when he was attacked and killed for his Christian faith in North Africa. All hope seemed lost, his life and faith without noticeable effect. French soldiers who came upon his ransacked hut found a monstrance with the Sacred Host still inside. They placed the monstrance with the Host exposed on the saddle of a horse and walked back to the French camp—the first Eucharistic procession in that part of the world. Charles’ blood had hardly dried and his Catholic faith was being boldly announced to the world. Since then, the Church in Africa has been blessed with breathtaking growth and remarkable strength.
My dear brothers and sisters, faith in the Eucharist is always fruitful when it is cherished and lived. My hope is that our rediscovery of the beauty and truth of the Eucharist might be similarly blessed.
With sincere hope and fatherly affection, I remain
Pope Francis visits the San Raffaele Borona assisted living home in Rieti, Italy Oct. 4, 2016. Credit: Vatican Media/CNA
Vatican City, Jan 31, 2021 / 06:30 am MT (CNA).- Pope Francis announced Sunday the establishment of an international day to honor grandparents and the elderly to take place each year in July.
“The Holy Spirit … arouses thoughts and words of wisdom in the elderly today: their voice is precious because it sings the praises of God and guards the roots of peoples. They remind us that old age is a gift and that grandparents are the link between generations, to transmit to young people an experience of life and faith,” Pope Francis said in the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace Jan. 31.
“Grandparents are often forgotten and we forget this wealth of preserving and passing on the roots. For this reason, I have decided to establish the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly,” the pope said.
The World Day for the Grandparents and the Elderly will take place annually on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of the grandparents of Jesus, Saints Joachim and Anne.
This year it will take place on Sunday, July 25, and Pope Francis will offer a special Mass to mark the occasion, according to the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life.
In his Angelus address — offered via a live video broadcast due to the COVID-19 pandemic — the pope recalled the upcoming liturgical celebration of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Mary and Joseph.
“The day after tomorrow, February 2, we will celebrate the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, when Simeon and Anna, both elderly, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, recognized Jesus as the Messiah,” the pope said.
Pope Francis also pointed to the example of the Virgin Mary who “always kept Jesus’ words and gestures in her heart and followed Him with total willingness and faithfulness.”
“May she help us too to listen to Him and follow Him, to experience the signs of His salvation in our life,” he prayed.
The pope said that Jesus “speaks not with human authority, but with divine authority, because he has the power to be the definitive prophet, that is, the Son of God who saves us, heals us all.”
He asked: “Do we listen to the words of Jesus which are authoritative?”
“Always, do not forget, carry a small Gospel in your pocket or bag, to read it during the day, to listen to that authoritative word of Jesus,” he said.
The pope explained that Jesus’ ministry of healing, exorcisms, and “preaching with authority” show that Christ “aimed at defeating the evil present in humankind and in the world.”
“Jesus’ teaching has the same authority as God speaking; in fact, with a single command he easily frees the possessed from the evil one and heals him,” he said.
“His word points directly at the kingdom of Satan: it puts him in crisis and makes him retreat, forcing him to leave,” Francis said.
After the Angelus prayer, children from the diocese of Rome joined the pope in the Apostolic Palace to read a letter about the importance of peace. The children are participants in the virtual “Caravan of Peace” organized by Catholic Action.
Pope Francis also highlighted World Leprosy Day, which occurs each year on the last Sunday of January. He appealed to world leaders to join efforts to treat those suffering from leprosy – officially called Hansen’s Disease – and to work for their social inclusion.
“I express my closeness to those who suffer from this disease, and I encourage missionaries, health workers and volunteers committed to their service,” the pope said.
“The pandemic has confirmed how necessary it is to protect the right to health for the most vulnerable people.
He first sought out the saint with a reputation for reading souls because he wanted to know if he had passed his exams.
In April 2019, one of the last living spiritual sons of Padre Pio came to the United States, where he gave conferences in Atlanta, Tampa, and St. Louis. Adolfo Affatato talked about the incredible things he witnessed – but more importantly, learned – at the side of one of the best known saints of the 20th century.
In 1952, Adolfo met Padre Pio through unusual circumstances. Now 82, Adolfo tells the story.
When he was 16, he set out from his home town of Foggia not far from the Gargano Mountains naively hoping this “soul reader” would tell him if he had passed his high school exams. Unbeknownst to this innocent boy, his first brief encounter with the stigmatized saint would radically transform his life.
Padre Pio was leading an evening prayer in honor of St. Alphonsus. When Adolfo observed him the first time, he realized he was in the presence of someone, something, extraordinary.
At the conclusion of the service, the men filled the sacristy behind the ancient church to try to get close to Padre Pio as he made his way into the cloister. Adolfo was there, too, by now feeling the weight of the foolishness of his original motive for coming out there.
As Padre Pio turned to the door leading up to his cell, suddenly he stopped. He turned toward Adolfo and said, “Adolfo, vieni qui” (Adolfo, come here). Incredulous that Padre Pio was actually speaking to him, Adolfo remained motionless. Padre Pio repeated himself: “Adolfo, vieni qui.”
Adolfo stammered out, “Padre, stai parlando a me?” (Father are you speaking to me?). To which the saint – known for his wry and surly temperament – said, “Mica mi chiamo io Adolfo, vieni qui” (As if my name were Adolfo. Come here).
Adolfo approached Padre Pio. The Capuchin friar placed his hand on the young man’s forehead and said, “Ti aspettavo da molto tempo” (I have been waiting for you for a long time). He turned around, exited the sacristy, and disappeared down the corridor.
Adolfo stood there dumbfounded at what had just happened. Those present stared at him wondering who he was and what had just happened.
That was the first of Adolfo’s countless visits to San Giovanni Rotondo. Shortly thereafter, Padre Pio accepted Adolfo as his “spiritual son” – an intimate relationship based on close spiritual accompaniment and direction.
Padre Pio guided Adolfo in his decisions and life choices regarding study and work. The last marriage celebrated by Padre Pio was Adolfo’s with his wife, Franca.
Over the years, Adolfo witnessed firsthand numerous episodes of supernatural, mystical phenomena the saint was known for. More importantly, Adolfo received much, much more than a firsthand account of curious events.
Padre Pio personified the loving, merciful face of God the Father to Adolfo. Through his relationship with Padre Pio, he came to know the deep and abiding love of God within himself. Adolfo’s experience with Padre Pio was, thus, evangelical.
Adolfo kept a diary in which he recorded what he observed, received, and felt. Not long ago, he self-published the first edition of his memoirs in Italian with the title, “Io e Il Padre” (Padre Pio and I).
In his book and conferences, Adolfo has had only one goal: to make the saint known “more and better.” As such, he never accepts any money for his books. Neither does he accept reimbursement for his travel expenses when he is invited to talk about Padre Pio in Italy or abroad.
What emerges in his writings is the heartfelt, endearing story of a man who loved Padre Pio as a father. After more than 50 years from the death of the saint, when Adolfo writes about him, it’s as if the stories took place yesterday.
Adolfo’s ministries are the fruit of what Padre Pio once told Adolfo, “Give the love that I have put into your heart to those to whom you draw near. In this is the meaning of life.”
(Adolfo’s book, Padre Pio and I, is available in English on Amazon. 100% of royalties are donated to the friars of San Giovanni Rotondo.)
The Christian life consists of ongoing conversion … but what does that really mean?
St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is exemplary. This is one of the reasons why it’s the only conversion we celebrate with a specific feast day on the liturgical calendar, on January 25. We don’t celebrate the famous conversions of St. Augustine or St. Francis or Blessed Charles de Foucauld, but we do celebrate the conversion of St. Paul, because it is, in a certain sense, the archetype of every Christian conversion. We should therefore understand what it is.
Conversion, for St. Paul, was not exclusively a question of renouncing his opinions and changing his behavior, but of renouncing the image he had of himself, of dying to himself in order to assume Christ. He did not only go from being a Pharisee to becoming a practicing and right-thinking Christian; he became a “new creation in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
So it is with each one of us. Christ’s call to conversion is an invitation to enter into communion with Him to the point of being able to say with St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). From the moment of his conversion, that is the only thing that really mattered. No longer circumcision, nor the law, nor daily upkeep — but Christ.
Conversion to become evangelical
Our Christian life is essentially a process of conversion. It is a question of freeing ourselves from all forms of bondage in order to become more and more like God Himself, who creates us in his image and likeness. If we do not convert, if we do not become more like Christ after years of “Christian” life, then we may well be nothing but caricatures of God in this world, and let’s admit it, a disgrace to the Church and those who only know the Gospel by hearsay. As the ancients used to say: Corruptio optimi, pessima — “the corruption of the best is the worst of all.”
We often hear people who are scandalized by “Sunday Catholics” remark: “You say you are Christians yet you spend your time doing this, or not doing that.” True Christian life does not consist of just going to Mass on Sundays and memorizing the Catechism (although this is obviously excellent). A Christian life means being converted to the point of being progressively more evangelical, living in this world “in the image and likeness of God.” The essence of Christian conversion can thus be expressed in two words: divinization and liberation. To convert is to unite with God, freeing yourself from what is contrary to him.
God unites us to his own life
Eastern Christianity does not hesitate to speak of “divinization” to express this Christian vocation. “God became man so that man might be made God,” as St. Irenaeus of Lyons liked to say, “This is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine affiliation, might become a Son of God.” St. Athanasius of Alexandria (4th century) added: “the Son of God became man to make us God.” And St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) says: “The only Son of God, wanting us to share in his divinity, assumed our nature so that he, made man, would make men God.”
There is some hesitation about using such language today. And yet, nothing is more classical and more true than this: Ever since He created mankind, God has had no other purpose than to make man like Himself. The sin of Adam and Eve damaged this original plan, but Christ’s obedience to the Cross restored it. In Christ we have been made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).
We are certainly not divine from the point of view of nature — we remain human — but we are divine from the point of view of the divine life that has been flowing in our souls since our baptism. God has united us to his own life. The grace that flows in our soul is participation. But if this is true, how is it that we change so little? Why is it so difficult for us to be truly converted? It is partly because we do not make this truth our own. We believe too loosely that we are children of God, so we don’t enter into the mystery of living in the here and now.
Since what we are, at the deepest level, is not yet very visible to us here on Earth, we are inclined to debase the mystery of our Christian life. The Devil, who understands very well what this is all about, tests us (and hates us!) in the same way that he tested (and hated) Jesus in the desert, trying to make us doubt our deepest dimension of being: “If you are the Son of God”, in other words: “If you are what you claim to be, you should be able to see it a little more!” The Devil wants to blind us to our true identity (God in us and we in God). And this is the trap we fall into every time we try to build our personality on something other than God. We then mistake this superficial quality for our deeper self, and it is ultimately a subtle form of idolatry. But we love to worship that cherished “I” that we think is us; and as we feel that conversion will tear us away from it, we resist, we put off until tomorrow the Hour of God, and our own as well.
Conversion is liberation
Every conversion is a Paschal mystery: a mystery of crucifixion and resurrection, because becoming a “new creation” can only happen at the price of killing “who we used to be” (indeed, often the “new” man or woman we believe we are!). If there is one thing we are all very attached to, it is the image we have of ourselves (whether positive or negative, for that matter). Saul, who thought he would proudly arrive in Damascus to bring back Christ’s disciples captive, had to enter the city blinded and led by the hand after his encounter with Jesus. His “ego” had to be broken so that his “deepest self” could emerge. The Pharisee that he was had to be “crucified” with Christ in order to be able to resurrect as a Christian.
In the third account of his conversion, in chapter 26 of the Acts of the Apostles, there is a detail that tells us how hard the struggle with God must have been for Saul. Having become a Christian, he recalls this sentence that Christ said to him on the road: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to resist my prodding.” Resisting the prod is what an ox does when it refuses to go forward. Jesus compares Saul to an ox that resists and hurts itself in resisting. It is telling, moreover, to see that Jesus does not say to him: “You disrespect me by resisting me”; or: “You are cruel and you will see my wrath if you continue.” He doesn’t even say, “It’s hard for me to bear this.” Instead he says, “It’s difficult for you.” It’s as if he were saying, “As for the harm you are doing to me, that’s one thing, but look at the harm you are doing to yourself!”
Christian conversion is not only a moral conversion, a liberation from sin (Paul does not tell us: “I used to act badly; now I do good things”); it is a conversion that touches our personal being in its deepest depths, a liberation from all that, in our person, resists God.
Place your health under the protection of the Virgin Mary’s intercession.
Many saints recommend placing yourself under the protection of the Virgin Mary, as she is so close to her Son, Jesus. Her protection is powerful and she looks down upon us as a mother tenderly looks at her own child.
Here is a short prayer for this intention, taken from the 19th-century prayer book Morning Prayers.
Grant, we ask you, O Lord God, that we your servants may be blessed with continual health of soul and body and that by the glorious intercession of blessed Mary ever virgin, we may both be delivered from present sorrows and be brought to eternal joys, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The cord is a constant reminder of the purity of St. Joseph and has helped individuals overcome their sexual addictions.
When trying to overcome sexual addictions, such as pornography, one needs to rely on many tools supplied by both science and faith. One such tool can be wearing the Cord of St. Joseph, a devotional practice of the Catholic Church that has its roots in the 17th century.
According to the early 20th-century book Go to Joseph, Our Unfailing Protector, this practice stems from an Augustinian nun in 1657.
In the year 1657 there lived in Antwerp an Augustinian … named Elizabeth [who was suffering a debilitating illness] … She had a cord blessed in [St. Joseph’s] honor, which she wore about her, asking the Saint to come to her assistance. Some days later while absorbed in profound prayer, she felt herself suddenly and completely restored to health … the doctor who attended her … was forced to admit her care to be miraculous.
This story of St. Joseph’s intercession through the wearing of this cord soon spread and others began to use it for spiritual ailments.
At the same time several pious priests conceived the idea that the cincture might serve not only as a means for obtaining bodily favors, but that it might also be a symbol and a remembrance of the excellence of the virtue of chastity practiced by the holy Patriarch. This pious object would stimulate the faithful to ask of God through the mediation of St Joseph, a complete victory over the flesh.
The devotion spread throughout Europe and eventually a blessing over the cord was written and special cords were sold along with it.
Currently the Cord of St. Joseph is still being sold on various websites, but because of its popularity in recent months, has sold out in nearly every place that offers it.
However, the idea can be easily reproduced, as all it requires is a simple white cord worn around the waist.
The Cincture of St Joseph should be made of cotton, wool or linen and should be worn under the clothing. It is both a symbol and a prayer, a symbol of interior devotion to the glorious Patriarch, a prayer to obtain through his powerful intercession the virtue of holy purity.
If you are struggling with purity, go to Joseph!
Struggling with purity? Try the cord of St. Joseph!
The cord is a constant reminder of the purity of St. Joseph and has helped individuals overcome their sexual addictions.
When trying to overcome sexual addictions, such as pornography, one needs to rely on many tools supplied by both science and faith. One such tool can be wearing the Cord of St. Joseph, a devotional practice of the Catholic Church that has its roots in the 17th century.
According to the early 20th-century book Go to Joseph, Our Unfailing Protector, this practice stems from an Augustinian nun in 1657.
In the year 1657 there lived in Antwerp an Augustinian … named Elizabeth [who was suffering a debilitating illness] … She had a cord blessed in [St. Joseph’s] honor, which she wore about her, asking the Saint to come to her assistance. Some days later while absorbed in profound prayer, she felt herself suddenly and completely restored to health … the doctor who attended her … was forced to admit her care to be miraculous.
This story of St. Joseph’s intercession through the wearing of this cord soon spread and others began to use it for spiritual ailments.
At the same time several pious priests conceived the idea that the cincture might serve not only as a means for obtaining bodily favors, but that it might also be a symbol and a remembrance of the excellence of the virtue of chastity practiced by the holy Patriarch. This pious object would stimulate the faithful to ask of God through the mediation of St Joseph, a complete victory over the flesh.
The devotion spread throughout Europe and eventually a blessing over the cord was written and special cords were sold along with it.
Currently the Cord of St. Joseph is still being sold on various websites, but because of its popularity in recent months, has sold out in nearly every place that offers it.
However, the idea can be easily reproduced, as all it requires is a simple white cord worn around the waist.
The Cincture of St Joseph should be made of cotton, wool or linen and should be worn under the clothing. It is both a symbol and a prayer, a symbol of interior devotion to the glorious Patriarch, a prayer to obtain through his powerful intercession the virtue of holy purity.
HANNITY: Biden’s Avalanche of Executive Orders Causing ‘Life-Changing’ Problems for Countless Americans
posted by Hannity Staff – 51 mins ago
Sean Hannity weighed-in Thursday night on Joe Biden’s busy week; saying the new President’s flurry of Executive Orders will create “life-changing” problems for countless Americans in the years ahead.
“It’s after 9pm in our nation’s capital. That means Joe Biden is likely fast asleep. It’s been a busy week for Joe. He signed a record 40 Executive Orders and Actions after just nine days in office. He’s tripled the number signed by Trump, Obama, and Bush combined at this point in their presidencies,” said Hannity.
“The consequences will be severe… Even the New York Times Editorial Board encouraged Biden to ease up. These actions will cause life-changing problems,” he
By Tom Hoopes, January 28, 2021
Pope Francis visits the San Raffaele Borona assisted living home in Rieti, Italy Oct. 4, 2016. Credit: Vatican Media/CNA
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