Regnum Christi

As we end the Liturgical Year and the Jubilee Year of Mercy we are reminded that Christ is our King. His kingdom is not here, but through the open doors of His Heart are we allowed in to His Kingdom. These doors always remain open, as the Holy doors are shut for the close of the jubilee year. Today we are reminded what we are living for. The Kingdom or nation to which we pertain is Christ’s. We are on a journey together from all different places to where Christ calls to us and awaits us. It is here and now that we choose Him as our King. He has lead the way, through the path of humility and the cross. He wants to lead us through the doors of His Heart and we can only enter by opening our heart to His. Open your Hearts to Him, He begs us from His throne of the cross. He awaits with hope and love our response. How much He desires us to be happily part of His Kingdom where peace and love are infinite.

For you know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone. On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you. Not that we do not have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat. We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food.

– 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12

 This warning against idleness was the second reading at Mass last Sunday.

Like many second readings, it probably didn’t register in the minds and hearts of many of the faithful.  Pastors don’t often jump at the opportunity to opine on second readings. Continue reading →

So, why do I go on like this,

Not living where you live, O life?

I die shot through

With arrows sharpened

By all my heart conceives of my beloved.

Since you’ve wounded my heart, why,

Why don’t you make it whole?

You’ve stolen it—

Why leave it lying

And not make off with what you’ve plundered?

(John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 8 and 9)

We were not made for ourselves. “You made us for yourself, Oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” (St Augustine, Confessions, Bk 1). Yet often within us we feel this painful, bleeding chasm, the rupture caused by sin. We were made for God, and yet sin has cleaved us in two. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Rom 7:15)

As we begin to perceive those whispers of God in our ear, our hearts start to simmer. This small flame begins to grow and grow, just like the passion of two lovers. Soon we are consumed by this desire, and yet we still bear the scars of sin. We want to be free to fly to God, and yet we feel suffocated by chains we don’t rightly understand. We cry out to our Beloved to free us, and yet paradoxically he who once seemed so close, now seems far off. We feel with St John of the Cross that he has stolen our heart, that he has struck us from afar, but then run off, leaving us wounded.

And yet, it is this very flame, this very wound of love by which he draws us into his embrace.

The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy isn’t over. Yet.

This week in Challenge, the team leaders and I were talking to our ECyD girls about the year of mercy and how we’re going to finish strong- live it to the full- to the very end.

Here in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, there are still several holy doors still open at local parishes. The Co-cathedral downtown will still have its holy door open until the 19^th.

Confession is another incredible gift- where the open Heart of Christ pours out into ours, healing our brokenness and strengthening us for virtue and good resolution. Continue reading →

Christ tells us to be prepared for war. We are in war now. There is a battle in each one of our hearts for our soul. Heaven is at stake. Christ tells us that we have to be prepared for anything, but the most important is to remain faithful to Him. The reward is too great to be lost. We only have one opportunity and we need to risk it all to be able to make it. The battle is tough and is fought every day. The good news is that we as Christians we are in this together and we need to hold each other up to make it. We won’t make it alone. We need to be there for one another to give each other support when the enemy pushes back. Christ’s victory is certain, but we need to persevere to the end to keep on the correct side.

Many Catholics, including me, watched the election of Donald Trump with deep reservations about the character and past actions of the man, but with a prevailing relief about the pro-life, religious freedom platform he brings and the avoidance of something much, much worse.   Late into the night on November 8^th we saw something unexpected – in the year of mercy, a day after the end of the 40 days for life campaign we avoided an anti-life, anti-religious freedom regime that would have restructured the United States in fundamental and detrimental ways.

However, it’s clear the morning after that we are living in a divided and wounded country and not everyone feels the same way.

(images from NY Times Facebook feed, November 10, 2016)

So what now? Continue reading →

Many Americans are trying to hold two seemingly incompatible truths in their minds at the same moment:  The sun came up this morning and Donald Trump will be the 45^th President of the United States.

It must be true, because even the New York Times reported:

Donald John Trump was elected 45^th president of the United States on Tuesday in a stunning culmination of an explosive, populist and polarizing campaign that took relentless aim at the institutions and long-held ideals of American democracy.

Truth be told, the Times didn’t comment on the rising of the sun, and they were so terribly wrong in suggesting that Trump attacked “the institutions and long-held ideals of American democracy.” Continue reading →

Intense restoration activity at the Holy tomb

Summary

Breaking news: A few days ago, after at least eight centuries of being hidden under marble slabs, National Geographic reported that Christ’s original tomb surface was partially uncovered during the urgent restoration of the small Chapel (Edicule) surrounding it inside the Holy Sepulcher Basilica.

Cutting edge technologies were applied by leading archeological restoration scientists of the National Technical University of Greece. Their complete finds will be studied and published.

A certain skepsis can form over time when the original burial place (Jews customarily bury their dead on bare rock shelves hewn into hillsides) was lying under layers of marble for centuries that no one had dared to remove. Continue reading →

Tomorrow, probably mid-morning, I’ll take a walk for a few blocks to my polling place.  I’ll pray the rosary on the way.

Like many – perhaps most – Americans, I’ll be making the best choices I can, consistent with my beliefs and values.  And like the rest of you, in most cases I’ll be voting for what I consider to be the least bad choice.

Our local state representative is Catholic, pro-life, a great family man and believes in religious and economic freedom.  He will get my vote and he already has my gratitude.  I wish there were many more like him, but candidates of his character are far too rare. Continue reading →

This summer we had the chance to take our 6 kids age 7-19 on the trip of a lifetime- a pilgrimage to Rome and a visit to Germany. Months of dreaming and planning culminated in a 9 hour plane ride.  It was the very first plane ride for my 7 year old, and the first time ‘across the pond’ for all of my children.

Heading to the check-in counter at the airport, the 8 of us lugged our suitcases and passports and approached the attendant.  He quickly asked my teenage boys to go back in line and wait their turn.  I clarified that we were all together. He said it didn’t matter, that he would only be able to check people in from one family at a time. Continue reading →