October 4th marks the Memorial of St Francis of Assisi in the liturgical year of the Roman Catholic Church. On that day, we remember St Francis’ example of holiness as he struggled to become a sign and witness of Christ’s love and mercy in the world. When most people think about St Francis, they usually will consider his poverty of life, or his love and appreciation for the grandeur and beauty of creation. Or perhaps they know of Francis’ efforts to bring attention to Christ’s humility in the Incarnation which resulted in the now familiar Nativity scene, or in his […]
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“Theology of the Body” (TOB) is the name given to a series of 129 talks that Saint John Paul II gave each week from September 1979 to November 1984. His talks on human love in God’s divine plan were drawn from Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church, but were also rooted in John Paul’s own pastoral experience of encountering the desperate need of men and women to know the truth of God’s love for them. In a nutshell, Theology of the Body is a biblical reflection on the meaning of human embodiment as male and female from the […]
Was reading an article today entitled “The Evolution of Anxiety: Why We Worry and What to Do About It.” by James Clear, author of the book, Atomic Habits. Why am I highlighting an article concerned primarily with behavioral psychology and stress management? Because yesterday marked the beginning of the season of Lent for most of the Christian world. (I say most because my fellow Orthodox do not begin Lent for another week. But I digress…) So what does Lent have to do with stress? Well, the image above might give you a clue. Lent is FULL of things that we […]
As we are now drawing super close to Christmas, the world has us in an absolute frenzy of preparations and “checking lists twice.” For those of us for whom Jesus is the reason for this season, it can be extremely disconcerting to traverse through these final days as all the focus seems to be on everything and anything but Jesus. So how do we wrench our focus off all the “to-dos” and allow ourselves to focus on Him? By doing what Jesus told us to do and become like little children. How? By acting like a child. 1. Look with childlike wonder. How often is it that we actually […]
Am currently traveling back from the V National Encuentro (which is taking far longer than I expected since my flight got cancelled and I was rerouted!), but it’s given me the opportunity to reflect and process on these last 4 days in which I was privileged to accompany 3,000 others from across the United States. For those of you who might be unaware, the Encuentro “process” was initiated more than 2 years ago by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops when they requested that the Hispano/Latino Catholic communities gather together to reflect, discuss, compile and then present the needs […]
Yesterday, I shared the 4 Simple Steps to Holiness, and promised that I would elaborate about each of the steps in the days ahead, so today I will talk a bit more about the foundation of all things in the spiritual life–daily prayer and meditation. Time with our Lord is the key if we are going to be transformed into saints. Why? Pretty simple. You become who you spend time with. We all know that we are influenced by our environment–the people, places and things that we are surrounded by, day in, day out. For example, you want to become […]
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” — St. Augustine This quote by St Augustine has made its rounds in various forms throughout the years since Augustine first wrote it back in the 4th century. However, the truth of it has never wavered. I have periodically shared this quote with folks, but usually in the context of encouraging them to do the work necessary and not simply wait on the Holy Spirit to take care of whatever situation or task they are doing. In this case, though, I am taking the opposite tact […]
So often in my life, I look around and realize how comfortable I am. Not just physically with the blessings of a house, car, clean and ample water, food, and clothing, but am spiritually comfortable as well, and it gives me pause. Why you might ask? Simply because to be growing in the spiritual life means so often to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s a phrase I use to gauge whether I truly am doing all I can in my life to avoid sloth and pursue holiness vs being distracted by the allures of the world. Because sloth is […]
One of the greatest challenges of life is how we respond to challenges, setbacks, and disappointments that invariably come along in the midst of life. In these moments, each of us has the choice to either give up, or to persevere. Many times we listen to the inner voice that tells us that we are not worthy, not capable, or not good enough, and we set aside the goal(s) that we are pursuing. Or we embrace the struggle, learn from the setbacks and continue to persevere in whatever it is that we are attempting to do on the journey. It […]
There is a lot of guidance about what being a leader is out there, but my post tonight is to share some thoughts about several characteristics that are unique to Christian leadership. First, and almost a duh, is that a Christian leader, one needs to be a Christian. I am not referring to the state of believing and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Rather, being a Christian only occurs by authentically living out the life Christ calls you to live in the world–by being the loving presence of Christ to others. If a Christian leader is not […]