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September 12, 2014 By Bob Waruszewski 7 Comments

Manly Catholic Reads: Joseph’s Way

“Often a father believes that being married and having children hinders him, if it does not altogether disqualify him, from achieving great sanctity.” To dispel this incorrect notion, Devin Schadt, in his book, Joseph’s Way, the Call to Fatherly Greatness, lays out practical ways for fathers to become saints within the day-to-day life of the family.

This eighty-day devotional walks through the life of St. Joseph in light of the patriarchs of the Old Testament, specifically Abraham and Jacob. Each day’s short reflections provides the reader with ample material to meditate upon in prayer.

The book contains two major sections, the Prayer of Faith, and the Prayer of Hope. The Prayer of Faith consists of three components, silence, obedience, and sacrifice. Likewise, the Prayer of Hope also has three main components, humility, wrestling with God, and establishing the domestic church.

Each section builds upon lessons learned in the previous section. For example, first we learn how silence is necessary for a man to hear God’s voice in prayer. Then we learn that a man cannot just simply listen to God in prayer, he needs to obey the instructions that he hears, which often requires him to make sacrifices.

The book contains deep insight and wisdom for fathers as well as some discussion of Theology of the Body. I will just mention a few examples.

“The vocation of fatherhood has been created by God in such a way that it acts as a fire, which burns away the desire to be noticed, while purifying the sincere underlying desire to be authentically known.” (Day 12)

“When a husband encounters a particular crisis, particularly within his marriage, his faith is tested and he is afforded an opportunity to discover or rediscover his true essence, which is to become a man who sacrifices himself on behalf of his wife and God. (Day 31)

Throughout the book, I gained a greater insight into the virtues of St. Joseph and the patriarchs as well as the many parallels between them. Not only did I learn a lot about some great men of the Bible, but I learned practical ways that I could imitate their example. In particular, the discussion of Jacob’s mistakes, and his growth in overcoming them to become a man of character were helpful to me.

Often, we can think that the only men called to be saints are priests and religious. Yet, the book Joseph’s Way, reminds us that as fathers and protectors of our families, we have a vocation too! To lead our wives and children in holiness and build up the domestic Church is a sincere task, not for the faint of heart. As fathers, we must embrace the call to hidden service of our families, just as St. Joseph did, so that we can become the saints of the 21^st century.

August 19, 2014 By Sam Guzman 9 Comments

Cardinal Newman’s Description of a Gentleman

Blessed John Henry Newman was a consummate Catholic gentleman. Reviled by many of his closest friends for converting to Catholicism, he bore insults and attacks on his character with patience and charity. Here is his description of a gentleman taken from his work The Idea of a University, published in 1854.

Keep in mind that Newman is here describing a secular gentleman of his day and not a Catholic saint. Nevertheless, while incomplete from a Catholic perspective, his definition is still an insightful portrait of past expressions of gentlemanliness and a helpful reference point in an age when even basic courtesy is sorely lacking.

Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself.

His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature; like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them. The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast — all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make every one at his ease and at home. He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. He makes light of favors while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring.

He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort; he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets everything for the best. He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp saying for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend. He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny.

If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better, perhaps, but less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they find it. He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find greater candor, consideration, indulgence: he throws himself into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength, its province and its limits.

July 4, 2014 By Sam Guzman 5 Comments

The Three Munera of Fatherhood

There are few roles as mocked and derided as that of the father. Watch any TV show or movie made in the last 40 years or so, and you will see fathers portrayed variously as buffoons, domineering jerks, or at best, good-hearted but clueless simpletons. What you’ll never see is a father portrayed as loving and wise, patient and strong. In other words, you will never see a good dad on TV.

But what does a good dad even look like? And if you want to be one, where do you begin? What obligations do fathers have according to the teaching of Christ and his Church? The answers to these and similar questions have largely been lost, but they do exist.

Over the next few posts, I want to examine the three duties, or munera, the Latin word the Church uses, of fatherhood. Understanding these duties is critical to becoming the father (and husband) God wants you to be. After all, it’s pretty difficult to be good at a job if you don’t know what your duties are.

If you want to understand how Christ models true fatherhood, how the role of the father relates to the parish priest, and what authority, if any, fathers have in the home, stay tuned.

July 1, 2014 By Sam Guzman 3 Comments

Today: Prayer Rally for Purity

Of all the problems faced in today’s culture, one of the most devastating is rampant impurity. Pornography is ubiquitous, children are sexually active, TV and movies are filled with explicit scenes, the contraceptive mentality reigns, and the list goes on.

And despite popular opinion to the contrary, these sins are never private. How we think about sex affects every human relationship we have—for if we believe that people are objects for our own gratification, we will treat them as such. This is evidenced by collapsing marriages, sex trafficking, child molestation, a “rape culture” on college campuses, and millions of abortions each year.

It is easy to complain about this cancer of impurity, but it is another thing to do something about it. Well, I am happy to announce that faithful Catholic men’s groups from around my home state of Wisconsin are doing more than talk. They have banded together to launch an effort called the Prayer Rally for Purity.

As the name implies, the Prayer Rally for Purity is designed to combat the culture of impurity, and ultimately, the culture of death to which impurity inevitably leads.

Today, at 3pm, the Hour of Mercy, men across America (and hopefully around the world) will join in prayer against the culture of impurity, offering reparation and asking God to cleanse us of our sins and to establish within all of our hearts a great devotion to chastity according to our state in life.

I invite all of you to pause at the Hour of Mercy today to pray that God would have mercy on us and purify our culture. If time allows, you could pray a Rosary or chaplet of Divine Mercy for these intentions.

To learn more about the prayer rally, visit www.ReclaimTheKingdom.org.

June 27, 2014 By Guest Contributer 2 Comments

The Sacred Heart and the Three Loves of Jesus

In his encyclical, Haurietis Aquas, issued in 1956 on the centenary of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Pius XII offers us several metaphors for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s the “mystical ladder” which we climb to “embrace God Our Savior.” It’s also a “most precious shrine” which contains the “unlimited treasures of His merits.” The encyclical itself takes its name for yet another metaphor for Christ’s heart in Isaiah 12:3: “You shall draw waters with joy out of the savior’s foundations.”

All three are images that invite us to draw near and contemplate the Sacred Heart. As we do so, it becomes apparent that the Sacred Heart speaks to the ‘threefold’ love of Christ, as Pius XII puts it. There is, first of all, the trinitarian love among Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. But then, there is also the love that Christ, God made man, has for us.

This love, in turn, has two aspects to it. Because Christ was wholly divine and wholly man, His heart was not only divine, but also human. “And finally—and this in a more natural and direct way—it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body,” Pius XII writes. (Of course, Christ’s human and divine hearts, like His human and divine natures, must always be understood as united to each other.)

Love of the Trinity

Jesus’ entire ministry can be seen as an expression of the trinitarian love, because it is carried out in obedience to God the Father. But Christ’s love for the Father is particularly apparent in several distinct moments.

One is the cleansing of the money-changers from the temple. “His Heart beat with love for His Father and with a holy anger when seeing the sacrilegious buying and selling taking place in the Temple,” Pius XII writes. The Gospel of John speaks directly to the passion Jesus had for the temple of His Father when we are told that the disciples recalled this Old Testament verse: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. Such dedication is also on display earlier in His life, when Jesus, unbeknownst to Mary and Jesus, stays behind in the temple, conversing with the teachers.

The beginning and the climax of Jesus’ public life contain two profound moments of trinitarian love. First, in Matthew 3, after Jesus is baptized, we witness an extraordinary exchange of trinitarian love:

And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’

Then, at the climax of His ministry, as His Sacred Heart was beating its last on the Cross, Jesus yields the Spirit back. In Luke 23, Jesus cries out in a ‘loud voice’: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

Divine love for sinners

Pius XII specifically associates the divine heart what he describes as three of Christ’s greatest gifts: the Eucharist, His Mother, and the priesthood. In fact, each of those three gifts is a different way in which we receive the greatest gift of all: Christ Himself.

As Catholics, we understand how the Eucharist constitutes Christ’s literal gift of Himself to us. But the other two gifts reflect a similar spirit of self-sacrificing giving.

The existence of the priesthood is a concrete example of how God, in His plan to completely restore man, willed that we become cooperators in our own salvation: we are not mere rag dolls who receive God’s grace as if struck by a burst of lightning, as Reformed Protestants would have us believe. Rather, Scripture and Tradition teach that we are meant to be active participants in our salvation, which we work out with “fear and trembling” as Philippians 2:12 states.

In the case of the priesthood, specifically, Christ has chosen to “share” an office He holds with us. This extends not just to the formal priesthood, but also to the informal priesthood, exercised by all Christians. 1 Peter 2 explains: “Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

And finally, Jesus has not hesitated to share his own human mother with us. As Christians we understand that through Christ we become adoptive sons of God the Father. But the adoption process is a total one: we not only get God the Father, but also get Mary as our Mother, as Christ made clear to the disciple John on the Cross. There is no part of Himself that Jesus will not share with us.

Only a divine love could be strongest when it was at its breaking point. Indeed, it was on the Cross that the Sacred Heart was literally torn apart for us, when the soldier’s lance pierced Christ’s side. Out poured blood and water, miraculous symbols of the Eucharistic wine and baptismal waters—and the Church was born, recalling how God fashioned Eve from Adam’s side.

A fully human love

“On the other hand, the love which breathes from the Gospel, from the letters of the Apostles and the pages of the Apocalypse, all of which portray the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, expresses not only divine love but also human sentiments of love,” Pius XII writes.

One of the clearest signs that Jesus cared for us with a truly human heart is those gospel accounts where He is recorded as visibly crying. For example, in Luke 19:41, as He approaches Jerusalem, Jesus is suddenly overcome with emotion: And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it. And then there’s this verse, one that has been quoted by probably every Christian parent trying to console a crying child: And Jesus wept. (This is Jesus’ reaction to word that Lazarus has died in John 11.)

Perhaps the most dramatic expression of Jesus’ human emotions is also the one passage where his heartfelt obedience to God was also on display: the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here’s how it’s recorded in Luke 22:

And he was withdrawn away from them a stone’s cast; and kneeling down, he prayed, Saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow.

We can only imagine what Christ felt in the depths of his heart, while on the Cross. Scripture indicates that he experiences a storm of emotions. “And when the divine Redeemer was hanging on the Cross, He showed that His Heart was strongly moved by different emotions—burning love, desolation, pity, longing desire, unruffled peace,” Pius XII writes.

Such emotions are indicated through Christ’s last words on the Cross, according to the pope: Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!’ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise. I thirst. Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.

The following column was written by Stephen Beale, and it originally appeared at Catholic Exchange. It is reprinted with permission.