The upcoming visit of the Holy Father to the United States

The Holy Father is coming to the United States next week.   I am not confident we can depend on the media for balanced coverage.   They will report on some things the Pope says and does, but not others.   One's best bet is to read his speeches;  I am sure they will be posted on the Vatican website, maybe EWTN, I am not 100% sure.   I just urge everyone to not let their minds and spirits be informed by what the media coverage looks like, good or bad.   I recommend doing as best one can to get the information from the "original" source, the Holy Father himself.  As I said, the Vatican website, EWTN, or maybe the UCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) will probably be good places to read what he actually says, free from filters.
I pray the Holy Father will speak at least some on the Planned Parenthood videos that continue to come out, and continue to show atrocities that demand this organization be shut down in the name of justice.  If he does, I pray the media reports it.  My fear is that the image will be given that the Pope will speak more about climate change, immigration, the poor, and other issues more forcefully and more often than he does the life issue.  Of course, it may not be image, it may be the reality.  I pray to our Heavenly Father that that is not the case. 
(As an aside, not speaking about the Pope for a second,  I personally have little interest in anyone's social justice or environmental concerns if he or she does not support at minimal the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and an investigation into what they are doing.  It is hypocritical to speak of service to the poor if one supports the butchering of babies for "research".  )

Please, Holy Father, please speak on this, and more than once, during your time here.  Do not let the powers that be who will welcome you, or seek to guide your agenda, tell you what to speak.  Let the Holy Spirit give you the words that need to be spoken.

There is a battle going on in the Church and in the world today.   The powers of darkness are trying to ensnare the People of God.   They may often do so under the guise of good.   I believe during this week when the leader of the Church will be in our country that we should pray this prayer of protection to Saint Joseph with an earnestness like never before. We need his protection, and so does our Holy Father.

Most powerful guardian of the Holy Family, protect the chosen race of Jesus Christ; drive far from us, most loving father, every pest of error and corrupting sin. From thy place in heaven, most powerful protector, graciously come to our aid in this conflict with the power of darkness, and as of old thou didst deliver the Child Jesus from supreme peril of life, so now defend the holy Church of God from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity.

Triumphant living

Today's First Reading and Responsorial Psalm at Mass are full of phrases the capture the essence of what it is like to live in a triumphant relationship with God.   Look at all these that come from Isaiah 50:5-9 and Psalm 116.

The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.

See the Lord God is my help, who will prove me wrong?

I love the Lord because he has heard my voice in supplication.

The Lord keeps the little ones; I was brought low, and he saved me.

For he has freed my soul from death , my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.  I shall  walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

A cursory reading of the Bible will reveal thousands of phrases like this that speak of the Lord in terms of someone who can help us stay positive and focused in the midst of all our sorrow and woe, and help us rise above it, no matter how dire the circumstances seem. 

The Lord is described in the Bible, among other things, as a "shelter", a "refuge", a "King", and above all as  "Father". 

When we get discouraged about ourselves or about troubles in the world at large, we need to remember He is in control.   He is God.  (Psalm 46:10  "Be still, and know that I am God.")
If we are worried about our finances, He is the great Banker who owns all the world's banks! (Phillippians 4:19, God has "glorious riches")
If we are sick, He is the great Doctor, the creator of all the medicine and author of all the miracles ever documented.  Jesus describes Himself as a physician  (Mark 2:17).
If we are worried, He is there to calm our fears; think of Our Lord in the boat with the disciples as it was being rocked by a fierce storm (Mark 4:35).
If we are hungry or thirsty, He is he Bread of Life!  (John 6:35)
If we are lonely, Jesus says "I call you friend"   (John 15:15)
If we fear getting old, Our Lord says old age is a blessing ("Gray hair is a glorious crown", according to Proverbs 16:31)

And the list goes on..

When we "walk before the Lord"  we are always indeed "in the land of the living", as we prayed in the Responsorial Psalm today.  It can be gloomy and hopeless all around us, but with the Lord on our side, we are never defeated, we are never out for the count.  God will always give us the strength to get moving again and we can always live triumphantly, even if the circumstances within and around us would seem to dictate otherwise.  We just have to turn to Him.

Joseph faced some very difficult circumstances in his life from the troubling situation with Mary getting pregnant not by him, to Herod seeking out the blood of all first-borns and as a result, them having to flee their native country, to not being able to locate Jesus at one point.  Through it all, He trusted in the Lord, and the Lord provided, as He will for us in our need, not just today, but everyday.  
Joseph's life, despite its difficulties, was ultimately triumphant.  He is now a Saint,  his son is the biggest success of all time, and He is now is patron of the Universal Church.  Joseph, perhaps like ourselves, may not have seen everything in this life; we may have to wait until the next life to see exactly how triumphant our life with the Lord is.   However, even if our life remains a struggle until the day we are die, with the Lord, we are always triumphant!

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Marriage revisited

Marriage is in the news a lot these days.  First off, there is the case of the clerk in Kentucky who is refusing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.  Second, there is the Holy Father who has just recently promoted new norms that will, it is hoped, speed the process of annulments up, and make them more affordable, and thus, more people would be encouraged to go through the process so their status in the Church can be normalized.

I honestly am torn in both of these cases.  I do not know if the clerk is doing the right thing or not.  My initial thought is that she should just resign her job, seeing now she has become the satire of many on the other side of the debate.  They are pointing out that she has been married several times herself.  The caricatures and character assassination has been tough to watch.  I was wondering if she was taking the best path for herself and the pro-marriage movement.  My ultimate reasoning, though, was that Christians may have to exit government roles entirely at some point in the future considering how the mechanisms of government seem to be going these days, and we might as well start doing that now.
However, over the past few days, I have grown more sympathetic to her cause.  Here is my thought:  she was elected to do a job, the people of her state elected her to this role, and those same people of her state did not approve same-sex marriage.  Based on that, she has a right to feel she is doing her job.   If the people who elected her feel she is not doing her job, they should hold a special election to get rid of her, or proceed with other legal means.  Another reason I am growing more agreeable to her method is that there is a place in society for civil disobedience.  Both the case for racial and gender equality in our country did include some civil disobedience which led to unjust laws being changed.  If those people had a right to protest unjust laws, so does she.
So, there are several reasons for her, and several reasons against her, why this path is the right one to choose.  Ultimately, I think a faithful Catholic could make either choice in her shoes.  I pray her decision bears fruit.

On the other issue,  it seems like the Holy Father wants to do everything in his power to open the doors to the life of the Church to people who are not active in the Church, the many fallen away Catholics, people who feel disconnected to the Church.  Among those disconnected are people who are divorced and perhaps remarried, and feel they are cut off from the Church.  This redoing of of the annulment process is an effort to get some of them back in.  I cannot argue with that.  Therefore, I do think it is a good thing the Holy Father did.
However, I am not as joyful or exuberant about it as some in the Church seem to be.  I think the Holy Father could have held off and let the Synod Fathers discuss this matter when they meet in October, and give him their input before implementing this decision.   However, it seems he wanted to take this matter off the table from the upcoming Synod, and that is his right to do so.   I trust he prayed before making this decision.
I hope and pray though that this does not lead to an idea that marriage is something less than sacred that can be exited and re-started easily.  I pray that anyone who begins to take advantage of these easier annulment procedures, and the population at large, really understands the sacredness of marriage, and is not led to think otherwise by this week's news.
I think deeper reform beyond this is needed to achieve real improvement in the life of marriage in the Church.  We need more in-depth preaching of philosophy and theology, which includes natural law, which will help root the teaching of marriage in philosophical and theological language that will inspire many (including those already married, those wanting to be married, and those who have been married and are starting over) to a deeper understanding and living out of the marriage covenant.   We need reform of the liturgy that will make the Catholic liturgy attractive to many as something that transcends time and space, that really emphasizes the sacrificial act of love that Christ made for His Bride, the Church, the love that all married couples are called to emulate.   While the Holy Father has decided we need to make it easier to get an annulment, I feel perhaps we should make it "harder" to get married in the first place.  We should expect more from couples who approach the priest for marriage.  We should expect them not to be living together, to be attending Mass and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation frequently.   We should partner them with tenured married couples who have lived their vows for many years.  We need to celebrate anniversary Masses as parish communities.   There are other things we can do, but you get the idea.  This opening of the annulment process is a small step, that on its own, will achieve little if it is not combined with better catechesis and evangelization on the truth of marriage.

Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.

Devotion

The Shrine has a Mass at 5:30pm, Monday through Friday.  This evening as I entered the church via the side entrance near the tabernacle, I noticed when I first started to crack the door open that it was brighter than normal inside.  I thought one thing, and then as I opened the door fully, the reality confirmed my suspicions.   There was Eucharistic Adoration!   (When there is Adoration, the area over the tabernacle is more lit than normal, there is an extra light on, so people can more easily see the exposed host. )
Every Saturday, the Shrine has Adoration.   With today not being a Saturday, I was kind of surprised to see there was Adoration.  Then I realized today was the first Friday of the month.   The Shrine also had Adoration every First Friday.  The crowd at Mass was almost double what it is on a normal weekday, so that was another sign that this was a special day.

First Friday is a devotion in the Church.  Our Lord appeared to Saint Margaret Mary and promised the following to whoever is in a state of grace, goes to Mass, and receives communion on nine consecutive First Fridays:

"In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour."

He promises to those who practice this devotion:

1. I will give them all of the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their houses.
3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
4. I will be their strength during life and above all during death.
5. I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
9. I will bless every place where a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored.
10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
12. I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.

We have lost a lot in the Church these days.  We have lost a sense of sin, a sense of the sacred, and a sense of the holiness of God.   We unfortunately have lost priests and nuns, and I am not just talking about physical death.  We also unfortunately have lost a lot of our people who do not practice their Faith anymore.
Another thing, we have lost are devotions.   We see fewer people praying the Rosary.  We see fewer people praying the Stations of the Cross.   We see fewer people kneeling and praying before the Blessed Sacrament, be it in the tabernacle, or exposed in the monstrance as it was at the Shrine today.
That is one reason it was inspiring for me to see today an example of devotion practiced again, to see people praying silently and praying out loud the Rosary together before Mass in front of the exposed Host, to see lines at the Confessional (the priest was late starting Mass because he was hearing so many confessions, again probably because it was First Friday), and to see a large crowd at a Daily Mass. 

The definition of a devotion is an "external practice of piety".   Yes, external devotion does not necessarily translate to an internal heart aflame for God, which is the ultimate goal.   However, most of us I think could benefit from more devotional practice to help us with our internal life.  The more we practice devotion, the more trained we become to be attentive to the things of God, which can only help our interior life.

So, take our your Rosaries, open your drawer and take our your Miraculous Medal or scapular and wear it, say a Novena, find out when you local parish has Eucharistic Adoration and get down there. Let's get our own spiritual lives in order by practicing devotion,  be it First Friday, and/or any other type, and in doing so, help strengthen the exterior and interior life of ourselves, and the Church, the Bride of Christ.

Joseph, devoted to Mary and Jesus like no other, help us with our devotional life.  We seek your intercession to bring us closer to your Son and Our Mother.   Amen.