The Point of Catholicism

What's the point of the Catholic Church?

"We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church." It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection."--Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14

Cast Fire Upon the Earth

Feel the need for some fire in your faith life?  Call on the Holy Spirit to come in Jesus's name and change your life, then hold on to your hat.  Excerpts:

...Chris:...Just as Jesus gives you a new relationship with God the Father, the Holy Spirit gives you a new relationship with Jesus.

Sal: What new relationship?

Chris: There are a lot of aspects to it, but the heart of it is that Jesus becomes real to you, not just ideal or abstract. You know him, not just know about him. It’s as big a change as Job found at the end of his story, when the God he had been praying to and complaining to and calling on finally came to him. When that happened, Job said, “I had heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now I see you with the seeing of the eye.” Firsthand knowing instead of secondhand. And that’s a big difference as weIl, I imagine your father had left home to fight in some foreign war when you were born, and you never saw him. You only got letters from him (that’s like the Bible), and your mother told you about him (she’s like the Church). Then one day he shows up at your front door and comes in, and you hug him and talk with him and play with him—you meet him...

See here for a chaplet to the Holy Spirit.  For more, see:

• The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints
• 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration
• Navigating the Interior Life: Spiritual Direction and the Journey to God
• Deification and Grace

Pope Francis Elected March 13--A Marian Day

Something I hadn't realized.  Here's an encouraging article on the new Pope.  Excerpts:

...I told many friends the night before that I was expecting the Pope to be elected on the 13th since that day of the month was chosen by Our Blessed Mother to crown the first twelve days of prayer. Mary, Mystical Rose, Queen of Priests is remembered that day every month of the year. The sight of a puff of white smoke coming from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney confirmed my hunch and then came the great surprise: our own Archbishop of Buenos Aires had been whisked away by the Romans and was now Pope Francis...

he is a man’s man in the old way of Argentines of happier times, before vice and corruption came to us disguised as a promise that government was going to take care of us all as long as we worshiped the golden calf. To be a man in this periphery of the world can take someone to unexpected places. When leading the Argentine Jesuits, Monsignor Bergoglio found himself in front of Jorge Rafael Videla pleading for the life of two fellow Jesuits with leftist political leanings. That may seem merely a kind gesture to you but it was more than that. Bergoglio risked his life and went between the jaws of the lion to retrieve these two men whom he himself had severely disciplined shortly before they “disappeared” into the regime’s dungeons.

That act remained hidden from view for a few decades. He was even accused by some in the leftist media of aiding the actions of the dictatorship, and only after being forced to declare before a tribunal did his intervention on behalf of the two Jesuits become public knowledge. No one has heard an apology from his accusers yet, but such is the fate of the saints.

So when Bergoglio extended charity and concrete help to the youngest victims of the AIDS epidemic and kissed some of them tenderly, that was not meant to be a gesture for media consumption, it was a way to teach his flock by example...

When the Conclave elected Francis on March 13th, that date suggested strongly that one of the main missions of the pontificate of Francis is going to be the healing of the Catholic priesthood. Just as Our Lady converted that pigsty into a beautiful edifice dedicated to the glory of God, expect Pope Francis to work with Mary to reconsecrate the Catholic priesthood at all levels after a thorough house cleaning...

Benedict asked us to pray that he would not flee for fear of the wolves. He did not flee but he may have found that a strategic retreat was better for the Church. He did not do that out of fear or cowardice. On the contrary it was an act of valiant humility that opened the door for this Jorge Bergoglio, named after St. George the dragon slayer, to lead the fight with renewed energy.

As thoroughly proved years ago when he appeared before Videla, Francis is no coward. One has to be a man with total self-control to kiss a leper or face a man that can easily order one’s own death. That is a union of soldiering with charity that is not easy to achieve without serious divine help. Such is the Pope that God gave us. Glory to Him for not giving us the pope we deserve...

The War on Women

It has claimed many lives, and looks to claim many more.

Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.--Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae: On The Regulation of Birth, July 26, 1968, article 17

The Catholic Agenda: A New Age of the Holy Spirit

Pope Benedict's challenge to the rising generations today. Excerpts:

“...You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”. These words of the Risen Lord have a special meaning for those young people who will be confirmed, sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, at today’s Mass. But they are also addressed to each of us – to all those who have received the Spirit’s gift of reconciliation and new life at Baptism, who have welcomed him into their hearts as their helper and guide at Confirmation, and who daily grow in his gifts of grace through the Holy Eucharist. At each Mass, in fact, the Holy Spirit descends anew, invoked by the solemn prayer of the Church, not only to transform our gifts of bread and wine into the Lord’s body and blood, but also to transform our lives, to make us, in his power, “one body, one spirit in Christ”.

But what is this “power” of the Holy Spirit? It is the power of God’s life! It is the power of the same Spirit who hovered over the waters at the dawn of creation and who, in the fullness of time, raised Jesus from the dead. It is the power which points us, and our world, towards the coming of the Kingdom of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims that a new age has begun, in which the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all humanity (cf. Lk 4:21). He himself, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin May, came among us to bring us that Spirit. As the source of our new life in Christ, the Holy Spirit is also, in a very real way, the soul of the Church, the love which binds us to the Lord and one another, and the light which opens our eyes to see all around us the wonders of God’s grace...

The power of the Holy Spirit does not only enlighten and console us. It also points us to the future, to the coming of God’s Kingdom. What a magnificent vision of a humanity redeemed and renewed we see in the new age promised by today’s Gospel! Saint Luke tells us that Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all God’s promises, the Messiah who fully possesses the Holy Spirit in order to bestow that gift upon all mankind. The outpouring of Christ’s Spirit upon humanity is a pledge of hope and deliverance from everything that impoverishes us. It gives the blind new sight; it sets the downtrodden free, and it creates unity in and through diversity (cf. Lk 4:18-19; Is 61:1-2). This power can create a new world: it can “renew the face of the earth” (cf. Ps 104:30)!...

Empowered by the Spirit, and drawing upon faith’s rich vision, a new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected, and cherished—not rejected, feared as a threat, and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful, and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty. A new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy, and self-absorption that deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of his love, drawing people to the Father, and building a future of hope for all humanity...--Pope Benedict XVI, 2008 World Youth Day homily

We are called to a new evangelization aimed at ushering in a culture of life which will lead to the rise of the civilization of love.  How?  Answering the universal call to holiness, which means living life in the Holy Spirit--partaking of the divine nature and becoming sons and daughters of God in Christ.  All of that agenda, by the way, is laid out in a supremely readable fashion in The One Thing Is Three: How the Most Holy Trinity Explains Everything.

When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.--1 Corinthians 2:1-5