Regnum Christi

How do we evangelize? What does evangelization mean? How do charity and evangelization relate? These types of questions Fr John Bartunek tried to enter in his latest book of meditations.

As I read through them, I had a mixed reaction: I already know this but this explanation and format of meditation may be perfect to explain this to other people. As I’m studying a grad theology degree specifically focused on evangelization, I realized I might have a little more knowledge on the topic that would be expected from an average reader. I think Fr Bartunek does a much better job than I would have to overcome the “knowledge trap.” (The knowledge trap is the fact that when we know a topic we can sometimes assume other facts that someone who doesn’t know the topic would not be familiar with.) Continue reading →

One of the benefits of visiting Rome is sharing gelato with inspiring Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, including from the left: Melicia Antonio, Mary Patt Pirie and Melissa Kuhn.

I’m grateful to be in Rome this week.  It isn’t that I like being away from home (and especially away from my wife), but if I have to go on a business trip, this is the ideal week.

In fact, there are three key reasons why it is the perfect week for this guy to be gone from his home in Chicago.

First, Rome is a beautiful place to visit, especially for someone trying to live the Catholic faith.  The historic sights are magnificent, the food is great and the people are friendly.

Second, I’m a fan of the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs are in the World Series.  Just to be clear, I’m not a bitter Cub-hater.  But it is more than a century since the Cubs won the World Series.  Their fans are so emotional.

If they win this year, the celebrating will go one for days and it will be impossible to avoid dancing, singing, brew-guzzling fans making fools of themselves.  When a team has been a loser for so long, you can’t depend on classy behavior in victory.

If they lose this year, the crying and whining will go on for days.  It will be like the end of the world, but Cubs fans will just say, “wait until next year.”  And they’ll cry in the beer – a lot.

So by leaving the country, I’ll avoid most of the excessive emotionalism.

Third, this is the last week before the Presidential election.  And I’m over-saturated with attack commercials, lying politicians, biased news reports, angry people, and debates about everything except the issues that might make my life better or worse.

I’ve already decided which of the least-bad decisions I’ll make in the voting booth on November 8.  I really can’t imagine that either candidate could do anything to change my mind at this point.  What more could they possibly do?  (OK, that might be a foolish question.)

But at least if I spend a week away from it all the choice won’t get even more miserable.  Please make things right before I get home.

When Christ reaches into your life and your heart, it’s easy to understand the pull to follow him radically the way the first Christians did.  Living the gospel in the first years of the Church meant being counter-cultural, revolutionary.

Ancient Rome is not so dissimilar to mainstream America.  In the midst of the chaos, what is our response as Christians today?  What was it 1900 years ago?  History gives us a glimpse. The epistle to Diognetus from 130 A.D. elaborates:

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs.

They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life.

Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. Continue reading →

I learn so much from the saints. One of the graces I most appreciate of Rome is being able to visit so many of the tombs of these holy men and women who have gone before me and taught me how to madly love the Lord. This closeness to them has inspired me to take up their writings, adding a spiritual resonance to this physical closeness. I can’t find a saint that doesn’t deeply inspire me! I consider them all my big brothers and sisters. My family of favorites grows every time I take up a new book. All their writings have something in common: they evince a burning love for Jesus as a personal friend and lover. It is this passionate relationship of love that carried these big brothers and sisters through their earthly pilgrimage to their heavenly home. Continue reading →

The 45 DAY CHALLENGE 4 VOCATIONS consists in making a commitment, a pledge to do one vocation-related action daily for 45 consecutive days.

Looking at our vocation crunch, I asked myself, “What am I doing concretely to foster vocations?” The answer was, “Not much”. I decided to make a personal commitment to do a little action daily. Then I thought of asking a few people to join me. Continue reading →

Cover me, Lord, with your loving kindness.

Save me, as you have promised. Then I will

answer those who taunt me, for I put my hope in what

you have said.

–Psalm 119: 41-41

So many of our problems do not go away overnight. Often, there they are the next day.

And, the next.

A woman handles her problems different from her husband, different from men, in general. If we women had any idea of the power and influence we exert over those we love in our lives, we would both shudder and rejoice at this amazing reality. Our power and influence are largely spiritual and psychological. It is worth some reflection. Continue reading →

Dear Grandpa Diff,

Remember the Kennedy-Nixon debate?  It was the first on television and, naturally, the first I watched.  You were pretty old then; I believe it was the first and last televised debate you witnessed before going to you final reward.

That first debate was mostly about policy – at least on the surface.  Economics,  Taxes,  Foreign policy. Continue reading →

God listens especially to the attitude with which we pray. To God it doesn’t matter who we are in the image of the world, but the fact that we are His son or daughter makes all the difference. He wants us to come to Him in this attitude, not pompous like we deserve something from Him. He loves us not for who we have made ourselves to be, but rather for who He has made us to be. He wants us to see the great image He has of us in His eyes. He made us with so much love, and wants us to know that we are loved above all by Him. Sometimes we are so focused on who we want to create ourselves to be, that we forget that God loves us without all that, and wants us to know that we are even loved when we are sinners. May we turn to Him and ask for His mercy because it is in His mercy that we are able to see ourselves and be who He has made us to be.

Last Saturday I was accompanying a group of high school boys and girls for a monthly service project. This first one of the year was visiting a local nursing home.

On the back of their missions t-shirt was the quote in Spanish saying “Jesus calls you to be a disciple in action” by Pope Francis. It caught the attention of one elderly resident.

“What’s that you got there on the back of your shirt?”

When the teenager realized what she was asking and translated it, the elderly woman gasped. Continue reading →

A silent, beaming testament

Of something just behind,

Beauty blankets earth and sky

That something more may find.

Continue reading →