Confession

Read more about the article Hallowed Be Thy Name

Hallowed Be Thy Name

The name of God is so holy that Moses was given the second commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” and Jesus praised His Father’s Name in the most important prayer He taught us.  Honoring this commandment has profound effects not only on our spiritual life, but also on our mental and emotional well-being. It doesn’t take a genius to see that when teens and young adults are exposed to the extreme vulgarity that pervades much of our music, movies, tv shows, books, and even speech, that they become angry or depressed themselves.  Many adults have been angry or depressed for so long they don’t remember when that feeling began.  Taking the Lord’s Name in vain is a serious sin that harms the soul.  According to St. Thomas Aquinas, a doctor of the Church, serious sin also dulls the intellect.  According to neuroscientists, repeated actions and exposure to intense emotional states rewire our brains and reinforce those habits.  So when young people listen to angry music and think they feel better because the music expresses their feelings, what is actually happening is they have remapped their brains and anger has now become a more comfortable emotion. There is a way out of this morass.  Jesus Himself guides the way:  “Hallowed be Thy Name.”  Praising the Name of God not only fulfills our obligation to Him, it brings us to the center of His Divine Heart.  Praising Him elevates our own souls because it actually fills us with His joy. Anyone who has attended a Charismatic Conference or Mass understands the power of praise music and its ability to touch us profoundly.  For those who are introverts or are struggling with depression or anxiety, Gregorian Chant is profoundly healing.  Neuroscientists have demonstrated that when engaged in Chant, the entire brain lights up on imaging machines.  Meditating on the Rosary in Chant has been shown to remap and heal the brain. Praising the Holy Name of God brings us innumerable blessings.  We increase in our own humility – the understanding of who God is as Our Creator and who we are as the created. As our souls marvel at His glory, our faith increases and our fears disperse.  We increase in gratitude; we change our focus from ourselves and our list of wants, to Him and the many gifts and mercies He has already bestowed on us. His hope within us increases, which in turn increases our generosity toward others and expands our capacity to give and receive love. Praise Him and He meets us where we are, as we are.  Whenever we find ourselves still struggling with attaining peace and joy, then we start with a deep examination of conscience, forgive others from our heart, and go to Confession.  We need not have any fear of being rejected because that won’t happen.  When Jesus hung on the cross, He saw every sin that each of us would ever commit.  He saw each one of…

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Read more about the article Declare The Works of God And Give Thanks

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.…

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Read more about the article Zaccheus: Today Salvation Has Come To This House

Zaccheus: Today Salvation Has Come To This House

The Gospel story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 is read with Wisdom 11 on the Sunday cycle Year C (a cycle that rotates the Gospels over a 3 year period) and read with Revelation 3 on the weekday reading.  These readings together demonstrate the mercy of God. Most of us know the story of this short-statured, wealthy tax collector who climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus.  We are familiar with the self-righteous crowd who grumble that Jesus chooses to have dinner at the house of a sinner, but we are not used to seeing how much we are like Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus makes a startling choice. He runs ahead of the crowd, but instead of simply doing that and then standing in the middle of road where he would eventually cross paths with Our Lord, he climbs a tree.  Zacchaeus feels the calling, the pulling toward something new and better, and strongly desires it, yet he is not ready to get up close to Our Lord.  Well aware of his sins, he does not want to be inspected too closely.  Each of us has had this experience at some time in our lives.  We have all sat in the tree wanting what Our Lord offers, but not feeling forgivable. We have all had moments where we felt so unworthy and so ashamed of ourselves that we did not want to go to Confession out of fear and embarrassment at what the priest might say.  Reflecting on the first reading, “But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people's sins that they may repent” (Ws 11:23), we realize this is exactly how Jesus approaches Zacchaeus.  Jesus sees his longing and his fear and walks up to the tree and extends an invitation. One might think that Jesus is inviting Himself to dinner, but what He is actually doing is inviting Zacchaeus back into the community that Zacchaeus has lost through his sin. He gives back to Zacchaeus his human dignity and respect, telling both Zacchaeus and the grumblers that Zacchaeus is not only loved, but treasured: “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made.” (Ws 11:24) Zacchaeus responds to Our Lord’s call with repentance (Lk 19:8) and joy. Like Zacchaeus, Jesus meets us where we are: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." (Lk 19:10)  Once we have been found, we are invited to journey with Him. Our journey is one of continuing conversion, constantly striving to know Him better and love Him more. One sure sign that we have climbed back up in the tree is a lack of peace in our lives.  The events going on around us and in the news are unsettling and do require a great deal of prayer, but they should not make us live in fear. How do we transform our spiritual lives so that we not small boats being tossed among the…

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Read more about the article Return to Me with Your Whole Heart

Return to Me with Your Whole Heart

Even now, says the LORD,            return to me with your whole heart,            with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,            and return to the LORD, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,            slow to anger, rich in kindness,            and relenting in punishment. (Joel 2:12-13) This was the first reading for Ash Wednesday. God speaks to us through Scripture and also through the natural world.  It is no coincidence that Lent begins in the winter and yields to Easter in the Spring.  God uses these cycles to call us back to Him, to deepen our connection to Him.  If we approach Lent the way we approach a garden, we can yield beautiful flowers in the garden of our hearts. First, we begin with weeding.  The biggest weed is gossip. Weeding needs to continually be looked after just as we need to continually mind what comes out of our mouths. This is difficult for all of us, but we can ask St. Joseph for help with this.  St. Joseph had a major secret – his betrothed was pregnant and the baby wasn’t his.  He was devastated by this, but instead of telling anyone, he kept it to himself, preserving Mary’s reputation.  In the end he found out that he had misjudged the situation, but he had caused no harm to Mary in the process.  Gossip is difficult to overcome, especially when we think we are in the right, but St. Joseph can teach us how to receive the gift of silence. Second, we must get rid of all the large rocks in our garden.  Some of them are quite big and heavy because as we carry resentment for past wrongs the rocks grow larger and heavier with each passing year.  Forgiveness cannot be achieved alone, so St. Theresa of Calcutta is there to help.  She would often beg for food for the poor.  One day she brought a child into a bakery and asked for bread.  The shopkeeper spit in her face.  She calmly said, “Thank you for that gift for me. Now how about some bread for this child?”  The child received the bread. She understands well how to react with humility and forgiveness in the face of wrongdoing and she can help us get rid of those rocks. We must then add amendments to our soil so it will be a healthy place for our plants.  Even after forgiving others, some wounds are very deep and still need healing.  Psychologists say that the greatest thing they do for their patients is listening to them.  In our culture listening is a lost art.  How often have we tried to have a meaningful conversation with someone who was constantly checking every alert on their cell phone?  How often have we done that to others?  To heal these deep wounds, we need to take them to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Spending time with Him in the silence, pouring our hearts out to Him and giving Him time to speak…

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