Declare The Works of God And Give Thanks

Raphael called the two of them aside privately and said to them: “Bless God and give him thanks before all the living for the good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Proclaim before all with due honor the deeds of God, and do not be slack in thanking him.  A king’s secret should be kept secret, but one must declare the works of God and give thanks with due honor. (Tb 12:6-7)

I recently returned from a trip and shied away from writing about my experiences because this isn’t a travel website nor is it about my personal life.  But after hearing the words of St. Raphael, the Archangel known for healing, it became clear that it’s not about me, but about the fingerprints of God and recognizing Divine intervention in even the most ordinary of circumstances because He loves us so much.

After years of talking about a visit to Ireland, I finally sat down and planned it. I had heard about Knock, a place of apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  I didn’t really know much about Knock, but felt a burning desire to go and knew I was being called there.  As with all pilgrimages, traveling there had its own ordeals, but our arrival was met with a sense of peace.

On our first morning, we headed for the Reconciliation Chapel.  I knew the Holy Spirit was present because the priest understood things about me that we hadn’t even discussed.  He recommended that we attend the 3:00 Healing Mass at the Basilica and that we visit the museum. “Do it today,” he said.  At the healing Mass the priest called each of us by name and did the anointing and all the prayers of the Sacrament of the Sick.  Having three sacraments in one day was so amazing we didn’t even notice our jet lag. 

I had a whole list of things to do at the Shrine, but the priest told us to go to the museum so we went.  It was like viewing a time capsule from 1879, and at the very back of the museum was a large binder full of hand-written letters in beautiful European script. For some reason I sat down to read the letters.  Some kind soul had transcribed in type-written form all 600 of them. People were pouring out their hearts about illnesses, accidents, and deformities.  In every letter the person described either rubbing a piece of mortar from the gable wall, or touching the wall, or putting the mortar in a glass of water and drinking the water.  All of them were miraculously healed.  600 verified miraculous healings between 1881-1884.  I had no idea this apparition site was a place of healing –it’s the Lourdes of Ireland.  We saw photographs of many crutches left at the gable wall because people had been healed.  I inquired about the mortar and was told that the portion of the gable wall where Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God appeared had been incorporated into the outer wall of the apparition chapel and we could go touch it.  Had we not started the day with Reconciliation, we would not have known about the healing Mass, nor discovered the important secret revealed in these letters.

A few days later we booked a 13 hour bus tour that brought us from Dublin to the West Coast of Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher, Galway, and the rural countryside. Once again, the inconveniences of life turned out not to be coincidence.  Upon arriving at the tour bus stop, we joined a crowd of over 300 people booked on a tour bus that accommodated 63. Our tour guide explained that normally there was a high no-show rate, but they were calling in four other buses to handle the demand. Unfortunately, although we presented our confirmation and payment receipt we were not on her list.  Unflustered, she told us to ride with her to the last pickup point and hopefully people wouldn’t show up — “Don’t worry.  We’ll get you sorted out.”  We started praying to our guardian angels that four people would change their minds about taking a tour.  Amazingly, four didn’t show up so we were let back on the bus.  The only seats left were the front row “reserved” seats which is exactly where I wanted to sit. I couldn’t have planned it better.  

On the three hour ride back to Dublin, the friendly couple behind us shared their adventures in Spain and Morocco and how a layover in Ireland had turned into a spontaneous five day vacation extension.  We all agreed that seizing the present moment instead of always planning for some distant future was a much more fulfilling approach to life.  I settled in to my 15 decade rosary while reveling in the beauty of this marvelous green country with its endless rolling hills.  At the 7th decade, the man behind us dropped his phone.  Something in his wife’s panicked, “Robert, are you okay?” made me turn around.  He was definitely not okay – he was having a stroke.  In the middle of nowhere. He made a convulsive grimace and then his head fell to the left, his mouth slack open, his eyes unfocused, his face like yellow wax. His wife screaming his name and thumping his chest with no response. No rise and fall of his chest – no breath. No movement or recognition in the lifeless stare.  Desperate to help them, I didn’t even have an aspirin.  But I had my rosary – the simple plastic rosary that I had touched to the gable wall at Knock. I held it up and told her I was praying for him.  I knew he was dead.  She knew he was dead. The tour guide knew he was dead. I prayed anyway as the bus pulled into a rest stop. Then suddenly he coughed so hard his arms and legs flailed about.  When he was able to speak, it was obvious he had no idea what had happened to him and sought to reassure his wife that he “was just coming down with something but was fine.”  Miraculously he was able to walk down the steps of the bus and speak in coherent sentences.

His wife and the tour guide tried to convince him to go to the hospital while he continued to insist he was fine.  Not wanting a repeat episode on their flight to Los Angeles the following day, I asked the Holy Spirit to give me the words to encourage him to make a better decision, and, as always, He responded:  “Robert, I know that as a man you are expected to be the strong one, the one who takes care of the family. You want to be in control, but today that is not the way to be strong or take care of your family.  Look at your wife. She is terrified. She will have no peace until she knows you are okay.  For her sake Robert you have to be strong in a different way.  Sometimes being a man means you must fall on your sword and do something you don’t want to do, but you do it for the good of your wife and family because you love them.  Today is one of those times.” He agreed to go to the hospital.

Thinking back on this trip, I see the fingerprints of God everywhere, in every inconvenience, in every decision, in every path to which I was guided.  None of this happened on my own. He guided me to Confession. The priest was guided to instruct me to go to the museum. With all the beautiful art around me, I sat down to read letters. We discovered the gable wall.  We somehow wound up in the front of the bus with this couple and I had my rosary with me.  God intervened and restored this man to life through the intercession of Our Lady and many witnessed it.  The miracles of Knock continue.  Praise be Jesus now and forever.

P.S. –I prayed for all of you while there and lit several candles. The last candle was for anyone I have ever met or ever will meet, and anyone who has ever or will ever pray for me or my intentions that they be filled with an abundance of joy in this life and especially in the next. So if we have never met and you would like the blessing of abundant joy from God through Our Lady of Knock, you know what to do: “Hail Mary full of grace …… ” And for those non-Catholics who do not yet know the love of Our Blessed Mother, “Our Father Who Art in Heaven …..”

P.P.S. – In 1879, 15 villagers in Knock saw the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and the Lamb of God. The villagers prayed the rosary for 2 hours in the pouring rain during the apparition. The Church has investigated and found the eye witnesses to be credible. The faithful laity and devoted priests have created a beautiful Shrine of pilgrimage and retreat. Find out more at Our Lady of Knock.

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Our Father Who Art in Heaven

Over the years several Protestant friends have inquired about why Catholics have the body of Christ on the cross in our churches.  Our Protestant brothers and sisters display an empty cross in their churches because Christ resurrected from the dead.  For Catholics though, the cross means nothing without the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  The crucifix (Christ’s body on the cross) is central to our faith because His death saved us from our sins.  The shape of the church itself is a crucifix with the altar and tabernacle containing Christ at the head, and we the faithful sitting in the body. This is the simple answer, but it goes much deeper than this.

Jesus did not only die for our sins so that we could go to Heaven, He left us the gift of the Eucharist so that we could become one with Him and thus become adopted children of God.  We the created become members of His uncreated family. At any Catholic church we are home. All Latin rite churches throughout the world have the same readings and the same prayers each day.  No matter where we are, we can walk into a Catholic church and pray the Mass without knowing the language.  This is the unity of one family.  It reflects the unity of the Trinity as one family. After the Our Father, we exchange the Sign of Peace with our brethren signifying that we forgive one another, which is another sign of unity, before turning to the altar and asking Jesus to forgive us for our own sins in the Lamb of God prayer. In presenting ourselves for Holy Communion we communicate our oneness in belief. When we partake of the Eucharist — the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus — we all become one with one another just as all the branches are part of the same vine.  In the Eucharist, we receive the crucified and risen Christ and become one with Him, receiving a share in His inheritance as sons and daughters of God.

Jesus alludes to this plan when He teaches the disciples to pray “Our Father Who art in Heaven” and when He reveals how this becomes possible in John chapter 6, known as the Bread of Life discourse:

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in Me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from Heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6:53-58)

His teaching become clear at the Last Supper when He says, “This is My body…This is My blood.”  At the Consecration during the Mass, the priest prays His words from Scripture: “This is My Body which will be given up for you” and “This is the chalice of My Blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”  When Jesus took human form to fulfill the covenant between God and Man which will stand forever, He did not separate Himself from His divinity. Instead, He humbled Himself to share in our humanity, and He elevated us to share in His divinity.

In the Catholic Mass, which is offered every hour of every day somewhere in the world, Christ’s sacrifice is re-presented in a non-bloody manner.  The priest, who through the sacrament of Holy Orders is in persona Christi1, presents Christ’s sacrifice to the Father on behalf of the whole world.  It is this continual offering of Himself to the Father that brings us the Mercy that sustains our sinful world. After transubstantiation2 the priest stretches out his arms in prayer, in the same position Christ stretched out His arms on the cross, and offers the prayer Jesus taught us calling God “Our Father.”  He stands in persona Christi, arms outstretched, acting as mediator for all of us.  

If the resurrection had not occurred, our faith would be meaningless. As Catholics it is vital for us to attend the sacrifice of the Mass every Sunday because every Sunday is a celebration of His Resurrection. We come together to strengthen our faith and partake in our Eucharistic Lord now for the nourishment of our souls and also that we may be resurrected on the last day, when we will receive glorified bodies just as Christ’s body is glorified.


[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #1548.

[2] CCC, #1376.

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Remain in Me

On Ash Wednesday I decided that for Lent I was going to focus on really improving one of my big flaws – and promptly everything that triggers that flaw was thrown at me. By Saturday I was in Confession telling the priest how poorly it was going. The priest gently stated that I was trying to do it myself instead of asking God to accomplish it in me. Oh, right. Message received. I responded, “Well Father, I guess I need to add pride to the list of sins in this confession.”

While praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament afterward, Jesus put the scripture into my heart, “I must decrease and He must increase.” (Jn 3:30)  These were the words of St. John the Baptist, but suddenly I saw how it applied to me personally.  The key for me was to stop trying to depend on myself, and instead become like a child depending completely on God.  The more I got out of the way, the more God could work in me.  I suddenly saw clearly how the saints achieved such holiness.  They did not do it on their own, they instead relied on the Lord.  The more they emptied themselves, the more God filled them. They embraced humility and God did the rest. Then I recalled a story about the humility of St. John Paul the Great.

At a retreat, a priest recounted his experience with Pope John Paul II when he was in seminary visiting Rome.  He had been instructed that the Pope would walk down the line and bless each of them and they weren’t supposed to converse with him because there were so many people and the Pope had limited time (according to them).  However, he had been on the street earlier that day and had met a beggar.  Embarrassed that he had no money to give, he offered to pray for the man.  The beggar then told him that he had been a priest.  The seminarian was so troubled about this that he blurted it out to the Pope when he came to bless him. The Pope instructed him to find the beggar and bring him to his personal office the following day.

The seminarian brought the beggar. The Pope received him and asked everyone else to leave the room.  When the beggar came out of the room, tears were streaming down his face. The seminarian and the priests asked what the Pope said to him.  The beggar responded, “He sat me down in a chair and kneeled in front of me and said, “Father, will you hear my confession?” Because of the humility of this saint, the beggar subsequently returned to his priestly vocation.

We are now at the end of Lent, entering the Holy Triduum. The Lord spoke again to my heart, “Remain in Me and I will remain in you”  — a confirmation of His earlier message. 

Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.  If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. (Jn 15:5,7-8)

He is calling us to be saints. You think you don’t have what it takes? You are in good company – none of us do – without Him we can do nothing.  Just as the branch relies completely on the vine for strength, sustenance, and life, so too must we rely on Him.  Remain in Him and allow Him to work through us.  If we humble ourselves, God can fill us and He can make us saints.

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You Are The Salt of the Earth

Salt is an image that has been universally recognized throughout the ages and across all cultures.  As Christians we reflect on every meaning of salt and how we can apply it to our lives.

Salt has the ability to transform the taste of food.  When I eat raw bok choy, I find that with a dash of sea salt, the bitter edge becomes sweet.  The secret to cooking with salt is to use just enough to bring out other flavors; one should not taste the salt.  How many times have we experienced the gift of salt from others?  The people who clean the altar linens at Church for Sunday Mass, parents who do all the prep work for preschool art class or sew costumes for school plays, or the hosts and hostesses who prepare their homes to welcome holiday guests all do much more than we realize.  They are the salt that brings beauty to our lives.

Salt is humble.  It remains in the background not driven by need for recognition.  St. Thérèse of Lisieux is a perfect example. As a cloistered nun, she remained apart from society devoted to a life of prayer.  In her time very few people knew of her existence or the profound effect she would have on Christianity. She died at 24 years of age in 1897.  Her spiritual essays, collectively published as The Story of a Soul in 1898 outline a path to holiness that is so simple a child could grasp it: do all the little things with great love. 

As a mom raising young children I would have loved to say that I rose early every morning to pray a rosary before starting my day, but that was not my reality. My children did not nap and my younger one slept very poorly for years – which meant I slept poorly as well, tumbling into bed at night exhausted and falling asleep during the Apostles’ Creed; I hoarded every minute of sleep as a treasure.  St. Thérèse’s words showed me how to make a prayer out of my ordinary life. Whether I was doing laundry, scrubbing the toilet, or cooking a meal, I could offer these things to God with love and they would no longer be menial tasks, but prayers from the heart. Her advice transformed my perspective not only on what I was doing, but on how I valued myself and my contribution to the world.  I no longer saw myself the way American society views parents who work in the home; I saw myself as someone accomplishing the tasks God wanted me to do for love of Him and my family.  I found meaning in the smallness of my life.

Salt is vital for life. Salt helps regulate the water content in our bodies, helps maintain blood pressure, and assists in nerve and muscle function.  Without salt, we could not survive.  If we are to be this salt, we must understand that without Christ we have no eternal life and neither does anyone else. We are chosen to be witnesses for Him and bring those around us into life in Christ.  We are called to live our Christian faith so that we are a blessing to others. 

Jesus is also writing us a love letter. If we really pay attention to the Scripture, we can read what He means to tell us. Jesus sees our acts of love that no one else sees.  Nothing that we do is unimportant in His eyes. Salt is precious and so are we.  We are the ones with whom He wants to share His eternal life. We are the reason He came to earth, suffered, died, and resurrected. We are the beloved of God.

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