I Love St. Lucy

Today, December 13, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Lucy. You may not be terribly familiar with St. Lucy, but she holds a very special place in my life as a priest and she will forever remain one of my all-time favorite saints.

Lucy was a young girl who lived during the late third and early fourth centuries, at a time when Christianity was still out-lawed by Roman government. Lucy decided to dedicate her life, her body, and her virginity entirely to Christ. Consequently, she enraged a young suitor by rejecting his advances; the suitor denounced her as a Christian and turned her over to the authorities (way to win a girl’s heart, buddy...). She was questioned and threatened with the worst sorts of torture and punishment if she did not renounce her faith, but Lucy remained unwavering. Her tormentors attempted to inflict all kinds of punishments on her but God made her body immovable so that the torturers could do nothing to her, until they finally pulled out their swords and ended her life.

Part of the legend around St. Lucy involves the story of her executioners removing her eyes as part of her torture, although they were miraculously restored. This is whence comes St. Lucy’s title as the patroness of eyesight. Scandinavian countries celebrate the feast of St. Lucy, whose name means “light”, with the tradition of having the oldest girl in the family dress in white with a red sash, white for her purity and red for her martyrdom, and wearing a wreath with lit candles. The young lady would often carry and distribute rolls and cookies to the rest of the family as part of the celebration.

I love the spirit of devotion and admiration for our Catholic heroes and heroines that inspire such pious celebrations; but above all, my admiration for Lucy stems from her willingness to give Christ everything, first her body as a virgin and then her whole life as a martyr. That is the kind of total self-surrendering with which we too need to give ourselves entirely to Jesus, and it is also the kind of devotion and fortitude that we especially need in our young people.  The courage and faith of this brave young girl should indeed serve as a light for us as we continue this season of Advent.

Pax Vobiscum

Video: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Here's my latest video, in honor of today, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOrbXxnxF1w

Video: St. Nicholas

Here is my second video, dedicated to today's saint, St. Nicholas. Also check out my post on St. Nicholas from last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK4fPXUbBsA&feature=youtu.be

Video: The Season of Advent

I am very pleased to announce my first ever YouTube video! It's on this beautiful season of Advent. More to come, enjoy!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ73CcMBg3s&feature=youtu.be

Divided We Fall

So. Donald Trump is our new president. Now what are we to do? I say, let’s all just take a deep breath. There are two extremes which trouble me that currently seem to be in vogue. The one that is getting the most attention is the protesting. Putting aside the violent outbreaks that have happened within these protests, let us simply take the protests themselves at face value. Let me begin by saying this: I understand. Really, I do. I understand the anger, I understand the fear, I understand the hurt. 

But here’s what I’m having a hard time with: the biggest “fruit” of this whole election has been one of division. Everywhere, division. Friends, families, communities, countries even. To which I can’t help but ask, “Is it really worth all that?” Are Trump and Clinton really worthy of all the discord we’ve suffered over them? I’d like to posit that what we need now as a country, and as citizens of that country, is unity. And on that note, I further can’t help but wonder what good comes from protesting an election that has already happened? To my mind, it serves no purpose but to continue the division, which is precisely what we don’t need right now. The cold, hard fact is that according to our method of voting, Donald Trump is the president-elect. We can move on and try to heal, or we can keep sowing seeds of division.

Having said all that, there is another camp, perhaps less obvious but very prevalent in the world of Catholic media, which celebrates the results of this election with a certain kind of triumphalism, as though we have all just won a great victory for the Pro-Life cause. Ummmmm.....really? Have we? At the very least, I think we need to wait and see. Now I certainly don’t want to mitigate the significance and weight of the abortion issue in this election, particularly for us as Catholics. However, I’m just not entirely sure that Donald Trump has presented himself in such a way that should make us as Catholics say, “Thank God, our hero has emerged victorious!”  Particularly in light of the fact that there are those who are genuinely shaken by the thought of Donald Trump as president. Again, it is a question of division versus unity. Which do we actually need?

Bottom-line: I feel as though there are two fundamental truths of which this election has made us lose sight. Number One: Hate is not good. I honestly feel as though this is something we have all forgotten, myself included. We hate Trump, we hate Clinton, we hate people who support one or the other. Wait, what? Why, in heaven’s name, is that necessary? Yes, this election was significant, and yes, we should care who the president is. But are we so attached to the world of politics that we allow hate to disrupt our daily lives? It is truly amazing how sensitive and even outraged we can be at another person’s hate and yet totally blind to our own. This is the point I’m trying to make about division. We don’t need hate; we don’t need division. And yes, even as I write this, I am painfully aware of how embarrassingly cliched this sounds, but the answer can only be love. Not the overly-sentimentalized version of love which just made you sick to your stomach when I used the word. The kind that is never trite or cliched. The kind that says, “I love you even when you don’t deserve it. Even when it hurts.” The kind of love with which Christ loves us.

Which brings me to Fundamental Truth Number Two: God is in charge. Worry, fear, anxiety-none of these are fruitful. This whole Chicken Little, “the world is over!”, type of mentality is not from God and does nothing for us as a country or a Church, not to mention our own peace of mind. Our faith is not in our politicians (thank God!). Our faith is in the God Who loves us even when we don’t deserve it, even when it hurts. I think this especially bears remembering in light of the feast of Christ the King of the Universe, which we have just celebrated. Donald Trump is only the President of the United States. Jesus Christ is King of the Universe. It’s all going to be okay.

Pax Vobiscum

Turn Me Over, I'm Done on This Side...

Well first of all, I really must apologize yet again for my gross negligence. I was inspired to emerge once again from my blog-guilt by today's saint, St. Lawrence.

St. Lawrence was one of the first deacons and was brutally martyred by being roasted alive. But this is why I love him: while he's being roasted, as legend has it, he taunted his torturers with the words, "Turn me over, I'm done on this side." WHILE HE'S BEING ROASTED ALIVE. You see what I'm saying? How can you not love this guy?

I dare say, I think we could use a good dose of the spirit of St. Lawrence in our own day and age. This type of in-your-face/do-your-worst/does-it-look-like-I-care? approach to suffering is something that could do us all good (myself foremost!).

I recently heard a talk by an exorcist in which he describes the ways in which certain demons affect certain generations. Previous generations knew what it was like to truly suffer, just to stay alive and earn a daily living. Nowadays, we are so embarrassingly spoiled that when our phone reception is bad, we think it's the end of the world. This type of habitual self-indulgence, so the exorcist says, makes it easier for us to move away from God. And moving away from God makes it easier for demons to move in.

The remedy? To embrace suffering and self-denial. This doesn't mean that we become masochists or go through life with rose-colored glasses, naively oblivious to the reality of pain and suffering. But only by uniting our suffering to that of Christ can we find any meaning or peace in it at all. I dare say there were probably many people who looked at this man dying on a cross and thought, "What a sad and pointless death." We can go through life approaching our own suffering in the same way. And that's when the suffering can overwhelm us.

But through His suffering and death, the entire world is saved and the joy of humanity is restored. It is only when we unite our suffering to His that we can find our own salvation from the suffering, our own joy from the pain. If we surrender our suffering to God, rather than run from it, it loses it's power. The more we try to control it or run from it, the more it rules us. No, its not going to magically go away as soon as you turn to Jesus. But you can still have peace despite the suffering. It can lose its grip on you, as indeed it had no grip at all over St. Lawrence.

So stop running from pain (or even mild discomfort). Jesus wants to meet you in your suffering, to remind you that you are never alone. So don't be afraid. Be like St. Lawrence. And when suffering comes your way, tell it to turn you over.

Pax Vobiscum

Holy Week

There is a reason way this entire week is called “Holy Week”. This is the week in which we walk with Our Lord through the absolute most important moments in His Life (and ours, for that matter). From the triumphant entrance of Christ on Palm Sunday, to the celebration of the Eucharist and the Priesthood on Holy Thursday, to the mournful solemnity of Good Friday, and finally to the glorious culmination of the most beautiful night of the entire year: the Easter Vigil, when we celebrate the victory of Christ over sin and death and the new life He has won for us.

This year, do no let this week go by unnoticed, for it is indeed the holiest of weeks. This is the week in which we enter into the most important mysteries of our faith. The whole reason why we are Catholic is that Christ has saved us from sin and death, the most crucial and most beautiful thing that anyone could ever do for us. This week is an opportunity not just to remember these mysteries, but even better, to enter into them with Christ, to walk with Christ Himself through His suffering, through His death, and finally through His triumph. 

That is why I cannot say enough to encourage everyone to take advantage of these beautiful celebrations, particularly if you have not experienced them before. Or even if you can’t, don’t just go through the week as usual, waiting for Easter Sunday to roll around like any other Sunday. Ask Jesus for the privilege of walking with Him through this time. Throw yourself into the beauty of our faith at it’s most dramatically pivotal moments. 

After all, there are 52 weeks in a year, but there is only one Holy Week.

Pax Vobiscum