Three Months

It's been exactly three months since my last post. Life's been kinda busy lately, but at the same time I haven't had a lot of ideas for blogging lately. That might be partly due to going through a bit of a spiritual doldrum... just stuck in one of those ruts, which can be especially frustrating when accompanied by repetitive sins. That's why I look back and wonder how I ever made it without Confession and the Eucharist. This past weekend, while chaperoning at the Ignite Your Torch youth conference, I thought back to the many similar conferences I attended with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship while a student at University of Louisville. Wouldn't it be odd to attend a conference now -- having been Catholic for a little over a year -- and see no religious brothers and sisters, no priests, no opportunities for sacramental grace through Confession and Holy Communion, no holy water, no Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and of course, no exorcists! Heck, I'd even miss the Latin. :)

A few months ago, I attended a Protestant candlelight prayer meeting at Centre College, and while it's always great to listen to and reflect on Scripture in a sacred space, it just wasn't the same. I have a feeling going to an InterVarsity conference now would leave me with the same feeling, like eating three bites of a steak: very good, but I'm hungry for a lot more. The funny thing is, as a Protestant I used to hear Catholics say the same kinds of things I'm saying now, and I thought they were half nuts or had too much of the Kool-Aid. Well, I guess of that "Kool-Aid" is the Blood of Christ, count me in!

Of course, like just about every conference I've attended, Ignite was yet another "Transfiguration" experience. While I've grown past the need for strong emotional experiences at these gatherings, my relationship with God is feeling much stronger. Plus, while I took a lot of notes from different talks, one bit of advice that I know will prove useful is to offer up to God the sufferings of temptation, joining them with the sufferings of Christ on the cross. I'm also more firmly resolved to resume going to daily Mass at least once a week (which I did during Lent) and spend at least an hour a week at Adoration. There are other things I'd like to do, like start running regularly and going to bed earlier every night, but I pray those disciplines will be some of the fruit bore from more frequently receiving Communion and kneeling in Adoration.

Yes, You Can Do That in Heaven!

Several years ago, an evangelist named Mark Cahill wrote a book titled, One Think You Can't Do in Heaven. The premise, at least behind the title, is that in Heaven there will be no sinners to whom we can witness about the Gospel, so we better take full advantage of the opportunties we are given here in this life. Since I never read the book, I can't say what his thoughts are on the whole communion of saints thing, but for some reason the idea that we can't lead sinners to God when we're in Heaven came back to me back in October while reading about the arrival of the relic of St. John Vianney's heart in Boston on Cardinal Sean's blog. Guess I'm a little slow bringing these thoughts to paper, but I'm erratic like that.

I don't know if any miracles have been confirmed in connection with his relic, but there is still a collection of canes and crutches left behind by people who were healed at the altar to St. Philomena built by St. John Vianney. Of course, every saint has at least two miracles that are verified by the Church to be connected to their intecession. But regardless of miraculous events, simply the presence of a holy relic and the news coverage about it in the Boston area surely served as a reminder to millions that we are all called to radical holiness. I'm sure most of them shrugged it off, but in some people it surely planted a seed and in others a seed previously planted may have come to full bloom.

But as if that isn't enough, we have the powerful story of St. Therese of Lisieux. She was hardly known outside of her convent when she died of tuberculosis at age 24. A year later, her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, was published. She became so influential around the world that another nun took her name and became known as Mother Theresa. And in 1997, Pope John Paul II named St. Therese a Doctor of the Church. She is probably one of the best known saints among Catholics for her simple approach to God. Countless miracles are also attributed to her intercession.

I think her own words provide the perfect closing and response to Cahill's book:

"I will spend my heaven doing good on earth."
-St. Therese of Lisieux

One Difference Between Catholics and Protestants

(This one is not a serious post, by the way.)

Dating the Church: Among Protestants, this refers to the practice of someone who never makes a commitment to join a particular congregation, either because they attend two or three churches at the same time or they go to one church for a year or so before moving on.

However, among Catholics this refers to a man discerning for the priesthood. Should he go on to the priesthood, we might even say he is exclusively dating the Church. And just like in a real marriage, once he makes his vows he'll be broke until the day he dies; unlike real marriage, he'll be getting exactly as much sex as he's expecting.


ba-doom ching... aaand that's all I got for now.

Well, it's official...

You sure can't beat the Saturday Sacrament Trifecta Special... Reconciliation (most people call it Confession, but that's only one part of the sacrament), Confirmation, and Communion all in one day. Badda-boom, badda-bang. I was actually looking forward to Confession, but that didn't mean I wasn't nervous about it. Three of us went Saturday morning and it had to be hilarious watching us being so cordial with each other. First, one lady had to use the restroom, so she skidattled out of the sanctuary for a minute, leaving me and this other guy. So I said, "I don't know if you have to be anywhere, so if you need to, go on ahead of me."

And he replied, "Oh, I've got all day! You go ahead."

"Well, I might be in there a while..."

"Take as long as you want!"

Then the other lady comes back and I'm sure she was hoping somebody would already be in the confessional by then, but we're still out there talking about who should go first. We really should've played paper-rock-scissors for it.

But it really wasn't that bad. I had a pretty good list written down on my piece of paper (not that I'm trying to brag...), but once I started reading them off, it didn't feel like more than two minutes before I was done. There were a couple of things that I wanted to mention specifically, where I could have simply alluded to them by saying something like, "yeah... I've struggled with lust." After all, that could be a million different things. But getting specific with your sins ain't easy. My voice stuttered and my left knee was jumpin' up and down... I hadn't been that nervous since asking a girl out for senior prom, but I just ignored it all and focused on being as honest as possible (without getting into details, of course). Of course, God provided the grace and courage; I was simply open to it, as opposed to the many times when I'm trying to cover something up or make something I did wrong not sound as bad as it really is.

So after that was all over with, I didn't feel anything real miraculous, but it was very comforting to know that everything I've done was just wiped clean and forgotten. In the past, it's always been difficult to "feel" clean just because I'm aware of my sinful nature and how susceptible I am to straying from God and falling into old patterns. When you can remember much of what you've done and the people your sin has affected remember what you've done, it's difficult to imagine that God can forget everything and make us clean as the day we were born (if not cleaner, since baptism washes away the stain of original sin).

And not only that, but we are counted worthy to receive Christ not just spiritually, but physically. Think about how dangerous the Holy of Holies was. Only one priest was allowed to enter every year so that he could make the annual sacrificial offering of Israel's sins (I'll have to look up what that offering was called). If he didn't perform the ritual correctly, stayed in God's Presence too long, or whatever, the wrath of God would kill him. I've heard they even tied a rope around the priest's ankle so that if he died, another priest from outside the curtain could drag his body out. Now, under the New Covenant, God humbles Himself under the appearances of bread and wine so that every person can enjoy the most intimate communion in God's Presence that was never possible under the Old Covenant. Pretty cool stuff :)

History Sure Is Ironic

You'd probably guess that the guy who first started using religious tracts would be some Calvinist preacher, like Charles Spurgeon or somebody. Well, the other day I ran across a short biography of St. Francis de Sales. I've always been a little curious about this guy since my aunt's church is dedicated to him (not a bad looking sanctuary for a small western Kentucky town either), but I never bothered to look him up or anything. Turns out this is the guy who was sent by his bishop in 1594 to evangelize the Catholic faith in the Calvinist towns of Switzerland, where celebrating Mass warranted death (not unlike the first centuries of the Church). Having stones thrown at you and suffering hypothermia in a tree to avoid becoming dinner for a pack of wolves makes for a thankless job. Since people were afraid to open their doors when he came knockin', he started writing short sermons, having them copied many times over, and sliding them in under the door. Eventually about 70,000 Calvinists returned to the Catholic Church within Francis de Sales' lifetime.

Some of these tracts were very short, the shortest of which seems to have inspired a fast-food chain's current marketing them: "Eat more fish." (ha ha)

Seriously, you can purchase these tracts in a single bound edition entitled "The Catholic Controversy" for only $9.75 from Amazon.com. Here's one tract I found online called The True Church is Visible. And here's some more about his life: either the short version or the long version. :) His Introduction to the Devout Life was written for laypeople to help them grow in love of God while trying to handle a job and family, which I'm gonna have to add to my lengthy Amazon wish list.

Now, you gotta admit there's some irony in Jack Chick using tracts for exactly the opposite purpose that Francis used them for...