Catholic Spiritual Direction

Important Catholic Spiritual Direction Update

2009-08-22T20:14:00.018-06:00

Dear Catholic Spiritual Direction subscribers, readers, and followers:

Well, this blog started out as an experiment this winter and wow - there are thousands of you out there all over the world! More important than the numbers is the constant stream of notes that we receive from our readers regarding the blessings they have encountered on this blog - Christ be praised!

Because of your response and continued readership, and our desire to better serve you, we have decided to move the site to a technology platform that provides more advanced management capabilities and that is more visible to the world through search engines.

The new site can be found here or you can copy and paste this URL into your browser:

http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog

The purpose for this post is to let you know that by the end of this week we plan to have the transition complete and we will no longer be providing posts here - instead, they will all appear on the new site. As well, we have some exciting things emerging with the site that we will share in the near future. That is all we can say for now - please keep us in your prayers.

Just so we don't miss you, for those of you who may have signed up recently to get our posts (in the past week), please go to the new site and sign up. Our technology transition is not likely to be perfect with respect to transferring your memberships.

In the mean time, enjoy, and never cease in your pursuit of Christ!

Seek Him - Find Him - Follow Him

Dan

Abandonment XVIII - The Ever-Flowing Spring of Holiness

2009-08-20T04:00:00.000-06:00

O all you who thirst, learn that you have not far to go to find the spring of living waters! It springs forth quite close to you in the present moment. Therefore hasten to approach it. Why, with the spring so near, do you tire yourselves running after shallow brooks which only tease your thirst? They measure stingily the water they give us, while only the spring itself is inexhaustible. If you wish to think, write and talk like Apostles, prophets and saints, abandon yourselves as they did to God's inspiration.

O Love unknown! Men think that your wonders are past and finished, and that all we can do is copy the ancient volumes and quote Your words out of the past! And we do not see that Your unceasing action is an infinite source of new thoughts, new sufferings, new works, new patriarchs, new prophets, apostles, new saints, who have no need to copy each others lives or writings, but only to live in perpetual self-surrender to Your secret operations.

We like to speak of "the first ages of the Church - the times of the saints." Are not all times the effect of God's action, the working of His divine will, including all moments, filling them, sanctifying them and making them supernatural? Has there ever been a method of self-surrender to God's will which is not still practicable? Did the saints from the earliest ages have any other secret of holiness than that of becoming what God's will was seeking to make them from moment to moment? And will this operation not continue even to the end of time to pour out its grace on those who give themselves unreservedly to it?

Yes, dear eternal Love! Love eternally fruitful and full of wonder! Yes, Will of God! You are my book, my doctrine, my knowledge. In You are my thoughts, my words, my deeds, my crosses. It is not by consulting Your other works that I can become what You would make me, but only by accepting You in all things, in that one royal way, that ancient way, the way of our fathers, the way of self-surrender to Your will. I will think like them, speak like them, be enlightened as they were. In this way, I will imitate them, quote and copy them in everything.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

29. Believing Leads to Seeing (Mt 9:27-35)

2009-08-18T04:00:00.002-06:00

“Therefore, that shining light of which has been lit for our salvation must always shine in us.”

- St Chromatius

Matthew 9:27-35

As Jesus went on his way two blind men followed him shouting, ‘Take pity on us, Son of David’. And when Jesus reached the house the blind men came up with him and he said to them, ‘Do you believe I can do this?’ They said, ‘Sir, we do’. Then he touched their eyes saying, ‘Your faith deserves it, so let this be done for you’. And their sight returned. Then Jesus sternly warned them, ‘Take care that no one learns about this’. But when they had gone, they talked about him all over the countryside. They had only just left when a man was brought to him, a dumb demoniac. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb man spoke and the people were amazed. ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel’ they said. But the Pharisees said, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts out devils’. Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness.

Christ the Lord

With this passage, St. Matthew finishes his narration of ten miracles performed in the aftermath of the Sermon on the Mount, in confirmation of the trustworthiness of what was said in that sermon, as it were. These last two miracles mark the final flourish on this section of the Gospel, showing that nothing, absolutely nothing, is excluded from Christ’s saving mission.

Jesus doesn’t come to rescue bits and pieces of broken humanity; he comes to gather it all into a new, everlasting Kingdom. His redemption actually brings good out of evil. If evil – whether on a grand scale of human history or on the smaller scale of individual human lives – were able to damage our humanity beyond the possibility of restoration, we would have no reason to hope. Jesus, however, shows that God’s loving goodness is far superior to evil. Those who let him into their lives discover not only forgiveness, security, and relief, but a profound renewal that gradually extends to every corner of their being. The Lord is Savior, but he is also Redeemer.

Christ the Teacher

Jesus works in our lives according to a plan. He knows what he is doing, just as he knew what he was doing during the days of his public life.

He orders the two blind men to keep the miracle under wraps. This is a frequent injunction, especially in the Gospel of Mark. He knew that the Israelites’ hearts had been hardened and confused through the centuries, so he was gradually revealing his full identity and the full extent of his mission. He wanted time to train his closest disciples, and he wanted freedom of action – all of which could be compromised if news of his miracles sparked precipitous action from the authorities or spawned too quickly a suffocating wave of wonder-loving crowds. Although his heart couldn’t resist the desperate, faith-filled appeals of the suffering people he came to save, he was nevertheless following a clear strategy.

Just so, he works in our lives intelligently, gradually, strategically. But we can’t see the whole plan – it’s too big and bright for our mortal gaze. And so we have to learn to simply travel along by his side like the disciples, listening, obeying, and trusting, carrying out one piece of the plan at a time.

Christ the Friend

The Pharisees were unbelieving. They didn’t want to believe in a Messiah that didn’t fit their preconceived ideas, so they found ways to justify their resistance – if Jesus drives out demons, he must be possessed by a stronger demon, that’s all. Imagine how Christ’s heart reacted to those accusations, such stubborn resistance to his grace. Imagine how he reacts to the disbelief of so many people who refuse to see the signs of his love and truth in our world today.

When a friend is in pain, you do whatever you can to comfort him. Christians can comfort Christ by keeping their own faith fresh and, above all, by living a real, practical, and universal Christian charity. That’s the only way to lay a successful siege against the world’s many barricaded hearts – breaching their walls with love, so the gift of faith can come streaming in.

Christ in My Life

You have let me see some miracles, Lord. You have given me experiences that can have no other explanation than yourself. Don’t let me forget them, Lord; let them nourish my faith. I believe in your saving power and your continued presence. Thank you for the amazing things you have done in my life. Pray for me, Holy Mother of God, that I may be made worthy of the love of Christ…

Lord, there are people in my life who are blind, who are mute, who are trapped in the darkness of sin. Jesus, I pray for them now. Free them, enlighten them, as you have done with me. Free me, too; keep enlightening me. I want to comfort you, Lord, with my faith and charity. Teach me to bear the torch of your love. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you…

These two blind men prayed so simply, so faithfully, and so directly! “Son of David, take pity on us!” Lord, have pity on me. You know my misery and my blindness. I believe that you can heal me. I believe that you can make me into a saint. You can do all things, Lord…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

- I am a convert and am struggling with the idea of praying to Mary, can you help? - Part III

2009-08-17T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: Father John, I am a convert to the Catholic faith, and I still have difficulties with Mary. Don’t get me wrong – I believe all the dogma and doctrine fully, but when it comes to praying to Mary, I don’t seem to get it. What role is she supposed to have in my pursuit of holiness and spiritual growth?

A: She has the role of helping you cling more closely to her Son, Jesus Christ – that’s what first examined, the theological underpinning of Marian devotion. And she exercises that role in three ways, as we have seen: by her presence, her example, and her intercession. Now we are ready to drill down to the practical level. What can we do, concretely, to live this Marian devotion fruitfully, to allow our mother in the order of grace to nurture, guide, and protect our spiritual growth? Here we arrive, finally, to the most obvious and familiar aspect, Marian devotions. Marian devotions are the many different ways that individual Catholics can engage in a healthy Marian devotion.

The distinction between devotion and devotions is crucial. Catholics are not superstitious. We do not engage in ritual or pious practices as if they were magical formulae. Our devotions give form to our devotion, just as a birthday cake gives form to our appreciation of a loved one’s existence. Without the sincere appreciation, the cake would have no meaning. If we engage in specific Marian devotions without plugging into the deeper theological source that gives them meaning, these practices can become distractions or even temptations that actually hinder our spiritual growth.

Having given that warning, we are ready to mention some common Marian devotions that, when lived rightly, allow the Blessed Virgin to fulfill her role in our pursuit of holiness.

Categories of Marian Devotions

The numerous Marian devotions that have arisen and flourished in the Church can be grouped into several categories. The most common and obvious category are the prayers. Praying to Mary (not worshipping her as if she were a goddess, but acknowledging her presence, admiring her example, and asking for her intercession) is the most direct and common form of Marian devotion. And among the prayers, the Rosary holds first place. Almost every pope since 1900 has written an encyclical letter encouraging Catholics to make use of this devotion. The Memorare, the Sub tuum presiduum, the Angelus, and the Regina Caeli are other favorite Marian prayers. We could write an entire post on each one, examining its meaning and its history. Many lesser known Marian prayers exist as well, especially novenas and individual prayers composed by saints and popes. These are vocal prayers (except the Rosary, which is a combination of vocal and mental prayer), and we pray them well in the same way that we pray all vocal prayers well.

Another category of Marian devotions consists of Marian shrines. By making a visit or a pilgrimage to a Church-approved shrine, we can give our Marian devotion a turbo boost. Shrines are sometimes linked to Marian apparitions (e.g., Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes) or artistic/miraculous images of Mary (e.g. Our Lady of Czestochowa, Our Lady of Chiquinquira, Our Lady of Guadalupe). The history of these events, places, and images offer eloquent (and sometimes downright awe-inspiring) testimonies of Mary’s active role in leading her spiritual children closer to the Lord. Every year, they inspire and renew the hearts and minds of millions of visitors and pilgrims.

On a day-to-day level, Catholics have long used household images to channel their Marian devotion. Reproductions of famous and powerful religious paintings and statues adorn living rooms, bedrooms, laundry rooms, dashboards, lockers, workshops, barber shops, restaurants, yards, road-side chapels, screen-savers, cell phone wallpaper, street corners, hospitals, prisons, and even casinos throughout the world. The mere fact of such ubiquity illustrates, to some extent, the powerful and inescapable role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of Christ’s Church. Most parish churches will also have a prominent Marian image, either close to the sanctuary or in a side chapel. Glancing at these images, or even spending a few moments now and again contemplating them or praying to Mary in front of them (this is often called “making a visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary”), allows Mary’s spiritual motherhood to work in our lives.

Getting Personal

For someone who has not developed a favorite form of Marian devotion, this variety of devotions may seem overwhelming. Don’t worry! None of us is called to engage in all of these devotions, though all of us are called to develop Marian devotion. The key is to find one or two devotions that help you live the devotion fruitfully. If you are at level zero, I would recommend starting to pray the Rosary, one decade every day (this Rosary booklet may be of assistance). If you are looking to deepen your devotion, you may want to arrange a mini-pilgrimage to a local Marian shrine for your family, for a group of families, or maybe even for yourself. An annual Marian pilgrimage, especially during the month of May (a month in which, traditionally, Catholics give special attention to Marian devotion), is an effective way to weave Catholic traditions into the fabric of family life.

I hope these series of posts have helped answer your question and put your mind at ease about the role Mary is meant to have in our great adventure of following Christ and building his Church. But if it hasn’t, don’t worry; there’s no rush. By seeking Christ in and through his Catholic Church, you will eventually come to know, love, and feel very comfortable with the Mother of our Lord.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Abandonment XVII – Especially for Us

2009-08-13T04:00:00.002-06:00

We can only be truly instructed by the words which God speaks to us personally. No one grows in knowledge of God either by reading books or by curious historical research. These means give us but a vain and empty knowledge, which serves only to confuse us and inflate us with pride.

That which truly instructs us in what comes to us by the will of God from moment to moment. This is the knowledge gained through experience, which Christ Himself was pleased to acquire before teaching others. In fact, this was the only knowledge in which He could grow, according to the expression of the holy Gospel (Luke 2:52); because being God, there was no degree of speculative knowledge which He did not already possess. Therefore if this experimental knowledge was useful to the Incarnate Word Himself, it is absolutely necessary for us if we would touch the heart of those whom God sends to us.

We only know perfectly that which we have learned by experience through suffering or action. This is the school of the Holy Spirit, who speaks the words of life to the heart; and all that we say to others should come from this source. Whatever we read, whatever we see, becomes divine knowledge only by the fruitfulness, the virtue the light which this experience gives. Without this experiential knowledge, all our learning is like unleavened dough, lacking the salt and the seasoning of experience. Without this experiential knowledge, we have only vague, untried ideas to act on, we are like the dreamer who, through knowing all the highways of the world, misses the road to his own house.

Therefore we have only to listen to God from moment to moment in order to become learned in the knowledge by which the saints lived, which is all practice and experience.

Set aside what is said to others, but listen to what is said to you and for you; you will find enough in that to exercise you faith, because this interior language of God, by its very obscurity, exercises, purifies and increases your faith.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

28. THE HEALING TOUCH (MT 9:18-26)

2009-08-12T04:00:00.001-06:00

“Nothing can come but that which God wills. And I feel very sure that whatsoever that may be, however bad it may appear, it shall indeed be the best
- St Thomas More

Matthew 9:18-26
While he was speaking to them, up came one of the officials, who bowed low in front of him and said, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved’. Jesus rose and, with his disciples, followed him. Then from behind him came a woman, who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again’. Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health’. And from that moment the woman was well again. When Jesus reached the official’s house and saw the flute-players, with the crowd making a commotion he said, ‘Get out of here; the little girl is not dead, she is asleep’. And they laughed at him. But when the people had been turned out he went inside and took the little girl by the hand; and she stood up. And the news spread all round the countryside.

CHRIST THE LORD Each of us puts our faith in someone. It may be a great teacher you once had, or your boss, or an effective leader, or it may simply be yourself. Human life is fragile, confusing, and brief – we naturally seek stability, which comes from putting one’s faith in someone. St. Matthew shows once again in this passage that Jesus alone is worthy of total faith.
We have already seen him heal a conscience by forgiving sins, calm a raging storm at sea, cure the sick and cast out devils… As if that weren’t enough, now he heals a disease that has persisted for twelve years to show that his power has no limits, and then raises a girl from the sleep of death to show that he is the Lord of life. This is the God who created you and knows your name, the Lord who gives his body and blood to be your saving food and drink. How worthy he is to receive the trust we all need to give!

CHRIST THE TEACHER St. Matthew emphasizes the role of faith in these miracles. The official kneels in front of Jesus – an act of homage and self-deprecation, an acknowledgment of his need and Jesus’ superiority and power. When the suffering woman touches him, it is her faith that reveals her presence to Jesus, and her faith that activates the cure.

Faith – belief in Jesus as Savior, trust in his goodness and omnipotence – unleashes the transforming power of God’s grace in our lives. God is not a Coke machine – we don’t pay the price of a few rote prayers and rituals, press a button, and get divine grace in exchange. God is a person; faith is our relationship with that person. We are created to know and love him and to share in his knowledge and love, but to do that we have to trust in him. We have to take him at his word, just as we have to do with anyone else we want to let into our lives.

CHRIST THE FRIEND St. Matthew shows us a Jesus who is utterly approachable. A sick woman is unafraid to fight through the crowds so she can reach out and touch the tassel on his cloak, and her confidence is rewarded with a miracle, a smile, and a tender, intimate word of encouragement. A synagogue official feels perfectly comfortable inviting Jesus into his house to resolve a tragic family crisis, and Jesus gladly complies, taking the little girl’s hand in his own and restoring her to life. This illustrates the message of the Incarnation. God is close to us; he is with us. He wants us to approach him – he wants us to open our hearts to him. If we are willing to accept the friendship of Christ, we never have to be alone.

CHRIST IN MY LIFE Have I unwittingly put any limits on what I think you can do in my life? This sick woman had been suffering for twelve years. It must have seemed like an eternity for her. But she didn’t give up hope. Have I? You are my hope, Lord. I place my sufferings at your feet. Let me hear your words of encouragement; let me feel your saving power. With the joy of your heart, expand my heart…

I believe in You, Lord. I believe in your Catholic Church. I believe in love; I believe in your love. I trust in you – you know I do. But I want to trust more. I want to be as close and hope-giving to others as you are to me. Give me what I ask of you, Lord, and then ask what you will…

Lord, I know that no matter how bad things look, you are still at my side. I know that even when I can see only darkness with my reason, your light shines through my faith. Yet, in times of trouble, it is so hard to see your light. Lord Jesus, increase my faith. Teach me to see all things as you see them, and to see you in all things…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

- I am a convert and am struggling with the idea of praying to Mary, can you help? - Part II

2009-08-10T04:00:00.001-06:00

A: God in his wisdom has given us a mother in the order of grace, Mary. He didn’t have to do it that way, but he chose to, and in the last post we examined, briefly, why. The liturgical feasts that honor Mary, the Mother of God, throughout the year provide us with opportunities to read, reflect, and meditate on this aspect of God’s plan of salvation. We shouldn’t expect those efforts to lead us to a complete and exhaustive understanding of Mariology (the study of Mary’s role in Redemption), but deeper insights into the role and ecclesial action of our Lord’s Mother will, surely, lead us closer to the Lord himself, and that’s our goal.

Having looked briefly at the doctrinal foundation of Marian devotion, we are now prepared to give a more direct answer to your question about what that devotion is supposed to look like in practice. Mary draws us closer to Christ in three ways, the three ways that all saints draw us closer to Christ, though as Queen of all the saints (and because of her special privileges, e.g., the Immaculate Conception), Mary’s draw is objectively more powerful than theirs: 1) through her presence; 2) through her intercession; 3) through her example. We’ll take a separate post to look at each one.

The Source of Mary’s Greatness

The presence of the Blessed Virgin in our lives, the knowledge faith gives us that she watches over us spiritually as natural mothers watch over their children naturally, gives us a constant reminder of the most important principle of Christian living: the primacy of grace. Mary’s greatness, unlike goddesses from pagan myths, doesn’t come from her own excellence. It comes from the privileged excellence that she received from God. The Archangel Gabriel greeted her by calling her “full of grace.” It was God’s special action in her life, his grace, that preserved her from sin and prepared her to become the New Eve. She cooperated with this grace; she was docile to what God asked of her; she allowed God’s grace to penetrate and rule her life. Yet, that grace, that action of God in her life, was the real protagonist of her greatness.

Mary is the first one to remind us Jesus’ sobering admonition: “I am the vine, you are the branches… Cut off from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The same grace that was at work in the Blessed Virgin Mary has been at work in all the saints, and it is at work in us. When we were baptized, we received an infusion of that same grace. Every time we pray or receive any of the other sacraments, that same grace – the active presence of God working in our souls supernaturally, from within – continues to warm and transform into our hearts and minds, as sunlight transforms a cold, shadowy cave.

The Power of Mary’s Presence

When we turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, therefore, her presence reminds us of the primacy and power of God’s grace, and gives a supernatural boost to our faith, hope, and confidence in God. If God’s grace performed such wonders in her, it can do the same in us. This boost of confidence is especially effective because when we turn to Mary we turn to her as our Mother. In relation to a mother, a child is always a child. In relation to Mary, we are always spiritual children. And so, her presence keeps alive in us the childlike spirit that we need in order to be docile to God’s will. It reminds us, in short, that we are not self-sufficient.

In this sense, Mary’s presence is especially important for us modern American Catholics. The American way of life, marked more and more by secularism and consumerism, is turning self-sufficiency into a real idol. Much more than previous generations do we need to reminded that we are spiritual children, that without God’s grace we can do nothing. At the risk of making this post exceedingly long, here is a quotation from a speech Pope Benedict XVI gave to the bishops of the United States during his visit in the spring of 2008. Notice how much he emphasizes the importance of depending on God – the primacy of grace:

“It is easy to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities that science and technology place before us; it is easy to make the mistake of thinking we can obtain by our own efforts the fulfillment of our deepest needs. This is an illusion. Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot attain, our lives are ultimately empty. People need to be constantly reminded to cultivate a relationship with him who came that we might have life in abundance.”

Mary’s presence keeps us humble, confident in God, and full of childlike docility and energy. In the next post we will look at the power of Mary’s intercession.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

The problem of "Praying to Saints"

2009-08-04T04:00:00.002-06:00

At one time in my life I viewed Christians as shallow people blindly following silly rules. As I was to discover, these perceptions were not only wrong, they were worlds away from reality. The root cause of my misperception was my confident ignorance. Until I allowed Christians to speak to me and define their faith in their words, I was unable to get anywhere near the truth.

As a Protestant, I had the same problem when examining teachings of the Catholic Church. Even after more than a decade of study, one-hundred percent of my perceptions were framed, not by understanding how the Catholic Church defined or explained its own beliefs, but by how Protestants defined and explained them. With that as a back-drop, let's look at a common concern with the idea of "praying" to the Saints.

First of all the word "prayer" was a huge stumbling block for me. It is very important for Catholics to understand that in the Protestant world, the word "prayer" is never used for any other purpose than to describe communication with God. So to hear someone was "praying" to a Saint easily sounded like sacrilege.

A similarly sized challenge for the Catholic is finding alternative words to describe this preternatural conversation. No Protestant has an issue with asking a friend to pray for them. The scenario of a prayer request to an earthly friend is easily described because the exchange happens in the natural realm. For example, "I talked with Bill and asked him to pray for me." If a Catholic were to use natural-realm language like this to describe the expression of their needs to someone beyond this life, for obvious reasons, it would sound odd and incomprehensible. The difficulty is that aside from the word "prayer" what word could one use to describe this exchange? I can't think of one that captures the true nature of the Catholic's supranatural supplication. So, one is then forced into either falsely defining reality for the Catholic, or, allowing them to define what they mean by what they say.

An honest inquiry reveals that the phrase "prayer to" as defined by Catholicism in this context, can be accurately translated like this, "I sought to engage Saint Catherine to intercede on my behalf." Now, any reasonable person would find this an odd and circumlocutious utterance. Instead, a Catholic achieves the same meaning from the efficient expression, "I prayed to Saint Catherine." To a Catholic this does not mean that Saint Catherine, any more than Bill in the example above, takes the place of God. What it does mean is that Saint Catherine loves God, is a sister in Christ, cares about the person, and will likely intercede for them effectively. No more, no less.

So, if we accept a purely Protestant definition of a contextually Catholic use of a word or phrase, we end up with a contrived psuedosacrilege. If we use a Catholic definition in a Catholic context, we end up with something quite reasonable and biblically sound.

Unfortunately, the errant interpretive method outlined above is very common to Protestant evaluations of Catholic doctrine. This disappointing approach is unworthy of the often helpful perspectives Protestants bring to doctrinal discourse on important issues in the Christian life.

Seek Him - Find Him - Follow Him

Dan

- I am a convert and am struggling with the idea of praying to Mary, can you help?

2009-08-03T04:00:00.001-06:00

A: This is a great question for the month of August, with the Solemnity of Mary’s Assumption right around the corner. As a fellow convert, I think I know what you mean. Marian devotion (this refers to what you mention about the “role she is supposed to have in my pursuit of holiness”) flows from Marian doctrine, from what the Church teaches about Mary’s role in God’s plan of salvation. The core of that doctrine is, as you can imagine, Jesus Christ. Mary is important because Jesus is important. Let’s take a look at the doctrinal issue before we move into specifics of Marian devotion.

Avoiding Exaggerations

Non-Catholic Christians often accuse Catholics of idolizing the Blessed Virgin Mary, of treating her like a goddess instead of a creation of God. Undoubtedly, some Catholics have had, and still have, an exaggerated devotion to Mary. But the Church’s official teaching has consistently steered clear of exaggeration. The Second Vatican Council points out that devotion to Mary “as it has always existed in the Church, for all its uniqueness, differs essentially from the cult of adoration,” (Lumen Gentium, 66) which is offered to God alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, Catholics don’t worship Mary; we worship God. Anyone worshiping Mary, treating her as if she were divine, would not be following Catholic practice.

Most Catholics in modern America, however, tend to exaggerate Marian devotion in the other direction: giving it too little attention instead of too much. Vatican II also pointed this out, when it warned theologians and preachers to “refrain as much from all false exaggeration as from too summary an attitude in considering the special dignity of the Mother of God” (Lumen Gentium, 67).

Mary’s Unique Role: God’s Choice

Mary is not just another run-of-the-mill Christian. She was not just some kind of surrogate mother that God rented out for nine months and then forgot about. Not at all.

God could have chosen to send us a Savior in a thousand different ways. He could have sent him to earth on a chariot of fire descending from the night sky, or formed him from the dust of the ground as he had formed Adam. He could have. But he didn’t. He chose to come to us, to bring us eternal life, to redeem the fallen world, through a woman. He chose to be incarnate, to become a zygote, an embryo, a fetus and a baby in a mother’s womb.

That fact, recorded in the Gospels, is the secret to understanding everything that the Church teaches about the Mary: God chose to send Christ into the world through Mary’s free and conscious collaboration. He didn’t have to, he chose to. And all of Mary’s special privileges – her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption into heaven, and her perpetual virginity – flow from that choice.

Christ Stays at the Center

But why did God choose to send us our Savior in this way? The Church points to a certain appropriateness in having a woman, a mother, collaborate so closely in the redemption of the world. After all, the original plan of God for mankind was disrupted through the disobedience of both Adam and Eve: together they had been entrusted with a mission that together they messed up. It is fitting, then, that Christ, the new Adam, should involve Mary, the new Eve, so intricately in his plan of redemption. As St. Irenaeus, writing in the second century, put it, “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience.”

The Second Vatican Council puts it beautifully when describing the angel’s annunciation to the Virgin Mary: “The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in bringing about death, so also a woman should contribute to life” (Lumen Gentium, 56).

When we were baptized, we became Christ’s brothers and sisters, as well as members of his body (the Church), and so Mary’s maternal care for Christ was extended to us as well. Responding to that care, accepting it and utilizing it to help us follow Christ more closely, is the heart of Marian devotion. The proud and self-willed child wants to do everything himself; the humble and wise child allows his mother to teach, guide, and inspire him. Mary wants to do that for us in three ways. We will look at them one-by-one in the next post.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

27. NEW WINE AT THE WEDDING (MT 9:14-17)

2009-07-29T04:00:00.000-06:00

“God’s splendor is the source of life, those who see him share his life. Because he was beyond the reach of man’s mind, incomprehensible and invisible, he made himself visible, intelligible and knowable so that those who see and accept him may possess life.”
- St Irenaeus

Matthew 9:14-17
Then John’s disciples came to him and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on to an old cloak, because the patch pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine into fresh skins and both are preserved.’

CHRIST THE LORD

Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom, a title that reveals two things. First, it reiterates the Messiah’s divinity. In the Old Testament, especially in the sayings of the prophets, God frequently uses the image of betrothal to describe and comment on his relationship with the Chosen People of Israel. The covenant bond God makes, renews, and deepens with his Chosen People has the same unifying, fructifying, and enduring quality of a marriage bond. When Jesus identifies himself as the bridegroom, therefore, he is asserting that the betrothal has come to an end, and the marriage is now, in him, imminent – language reminiscent of his first preaching: “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” If he were merely a prophet or an anointed earthly king (like David) such claims would be out of place. He must be more. He must be the eternal God himself come to wed his beloved spouse, the new Chosen People, the Church. Second, the bridegroom image reveals the sort of love this Lord has for his people – a passionate, personal, determined love, the love that a young man in the prime of his life bears towards his beautiful young fiancée in the prime of her life. This is no philosophical God, no distant, cold watchmaker in the sky, no abstract, Aristotelian unmoved mover. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Judah loves not less than the greatest human love, but even more.

CHRIST THE TEACHER

The lesson of the new wine and the new cloth becomes clear only in its carefully chosen context. John the Baptist’s disciples are still committed to John, even though John himself had explained unambiguously that he was simply the messenger, while Christ was the Messiah, the Lamb of God. These disciples hadn’t been able to accept John’s message, or at least they didn’t get it. They were perplexed, and now that their leader was in prison, they were closely watching Jesus to try and figure things out. They noticed that Christ and his disciples didn’t fast (fasting was a ubiquitous penitential practice among religious folks of the time), and this seemed to prove definitively that Jesus couldn’t be the real thing. Jesus sets them straight, not by giving excuses for his behavior, but by trying to get them to see that the promise around which the Old Covenant pivoted has been fulfilled in him; it has reached completion; the building is finished, so the inelegant scaffolding can be removed.

The New Covenant is the final, everlasting Covenant; it will not change. And yet, even so, we in the Church can still fall into this same error. In every age, the Holy Spirit raises up new saints and new apostolates to keep building up the Church and equip it to meet new onslaughts of evil. In each Christian’s life he does the same. Life is growth, and growth means change; let’s keep a stash of new wineskins close at hand.

CHRIST THE FRIEND

Jesus wants to come into your life because he wants you to share his joy. He calls his disciples his “wedding guests.” The Greek term literally means “children of the bridal chamber,” a phrase that referred to those special guests who were the bridegroom’s best friends, the ones who spent the week long wedding reception (the ancient Palestinian alternative to modern-day honeymoons) at his side, sharing his joy and celebrating with him. Jesus wants your friendship, and he wants it to deepen, so that the indescribable joy that overflows from his love can spill into your life and the lives of those around you. He only needs you say one thing to make it happen – but he needs you to say it over and over: “Jesus, thy will be done.”

CHRIST IN MY LIFE

I know, Lord, that a sad saint is a bad saint. You are a God of joy. I long for true joy, the kind that lasts even in the midst of suffering, because it is grounded in your love, a love that never tires. I believe in your love, Jesus, but I still need you to teach me how to live in its light. You are the bridegroom of my heart. Teach me the way to go; show me the path to follow…
Sometimes I am afraid of what you may ask me. I hesitate to follow you, like John the Baptist’s disciples. Why, Lord? Enlighten me. Your will is full of wisdom. Give me the courage to be wise…

You guide all of history – you prepared the world for the Incarnation, and now you spread your grace slowly but surely through the work of your Church. Thank you for your presence, your forgiveness, and your grace. I want to build your Church, to be a healthy cell in the Body of Christ. Make use of me, Lord. With you I can do all things…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Our Lady of Good Remedy Novena

2009-07-28T19:36:00.001-06:00

History

800 years ago Christians were being captured and sold into slavery by the thousands, and nobody knew what to do about it. Then, in the year 1198, a man had an idea. St. John of Matha founded the Trinitarians to go to the slave markets, buy the Christian slaves and set them free. To carry out this plan, the Trinitarians needed large amounts of money. So, they placed their fund-raising efforts under the patronage of Mary. They were so successful at that, over the centuries, the Trinitarians were able to free thousands and thousands of people and to return them safely home. In gratitude for her miraculous assistance, St. John of Matha honored Mary with the title of "Our Lady of Good Remedy." Devotion to Mary under this ancient title is widely known in Europe and Latin America, and the Church celebrates her feast day on October 8. Our Lady of Good Remedy is often depicted as the Virgin Mary handing a bag of money to St. John of Matha. When in need - for whatever reason, but especially where you have had difficulty obtaining help - invoke the aid of Our Lady of Good Remedy, and you will surely experience the power of her intercession.

Prayer

O QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, Most Holy Virgin, we venerate thee. Thou art the beloved Daughter of the Most High God, the chosen Mother of the Incarnate Word, the Immaculate Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Sacred Vessel of the Most Holy Trinity.

O Mother of the Divine Redeemer, who under the title of Our Lady of Good Remedy comes to the aid of all who call upon thee, extend thy maternal protection to us. We depend on thee, dear Mother, as helpless and needy children depend on a tender and caring mother.

Hail, Mary....

O LADY OF GOOD REMEDY, source of unfailing help, grant that we may draw from thy treasury of graces in our time of need. Touch the hearts of sinners, that they may seek reconciliation and forgiveness. Bring comfort to the afflicted and the lonely; help the poor and the hopeless; aid the sick and the suffering. May they be healed in body and strengthened in spirit to endure their sufferings with patient resignation and Christian fortitude.

Hail, Mary....

DEAR LADY OF GOOD REMEDY, source of unfailing help, thy compassionate heart knows a remedy for every affliction and misery we encounter in life. Help me with thy prayers and intercession to find a remedy for my problems and needs, especially for... (Indicate your special intentions here).

On my part, O loving Mother, I pledge myself to a more intensely Christian lifestyle, to a more careful observance of the laws of God, to be more conscientious in fulfilling the obligations of my state in life, and to strive to be a source of healing in this broken world of ours.

Dear Lady of Good Remedy, be ever present to me, and through thy intercession, may I enjoy health of body and peace of mind, and grow stronger in the faith and in the love of thy Son, Jesus

Hail, Mary.....

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of Good Remedy,

R. That we may deepen our dedication to thy Son, and make the world alive with His Spirit.

- Does the Holy Spirit work with those outside of the Church?

2009-07-27T04:00:00.001-06:00

Q: I thought I understood, more or less, how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. But in a recent faith sharing group, a question came up that made me wonder. Someone asked if the Holy Spirit would or would not be with un-baptized persons if they ask Holy Spirit to dwell in them or to give them fortitude in a difficult situation. This came up while we were discussing how God's grace can touch the lives of those who have never even heard of Jesus. I was hoping you could shed some light on this for me.

A: I am glad you asked this question. It reminds us that the vast treasure of theological reflection that our Church has accumulated through the centuries isn’t just irrelevant abstraction. It has grown up organically, in order to help us understand better and better how God works, so that we can cooperate with him more and more effectively.

In the first place, remember that God is not limited to working through the sacraments. Therefore, he can make saints without them if he so pleases; he can pour his grace into souls however and whenever he sees fit. At the same time, however, he himself established the sacraments as the normal, ordinary way to communicate his grace. For us to belittle them or treat them as optional, therefore, is presumptuous. He established them because in his wisdom he knows that human nature always experiences and expresses spiritual realities through material realities. And so, something real changes in our souls at baptism: God comes to dwell in us, adopts us, and actually alters (elevates) our souls at a deep, ontological level. In other words, it is not indifferent whether or not someone gets baptized.

“Types” of Baptism

The Church has long pointed out, however, that this grace of baptism can come in three ways: through the validly administered sacrament of baptism; through baptism by blood; and baptism of desire.

Baptism of blood refers to the martyrdom of someone who dies for the Christian faith before actually receiving the sacrament of baptism. In this case, the effects of martyrdom include some of the effects of baptism: the complete remission of sin and the privilege of immediate entrance into heaven. This concept of baptism of blood came into focus during the first centuries of the Church’s existence. During the many waves of Roman persecution, men and women who were still only catechumens (receiving instruction in the faith and preparing for baptism), and pagans who suddenly converted to the faith (for example, upon seeing the heroic courage of a martyr) were often executed along with baptized Christians.

Baptism of desire is a bit different, a bit more mysterious. It too is the equivalent of sacramental baptism, and therefore sufficient for obtaining the state of grace and the promise of salvation. Yet the circumstances by which it comes to pass or known only to God. Here’s how the Second Vatican Council explained it: "Those who through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictate of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation" (Constitution on the Church, I, 16).

As you can see, we simply cannot fathom all the wonderful ways in which God works in the souls of us sinners. God's action is so rich!

The “Types” of Grace

As regards your specific question, about someone who is not baptized asking for help from the Holy Spirit, it may be useful to recall the different types of grace.

There is sanctifying grace (the state of being in friendship with Christ, of being an adopted child of God, of having been redeemed from original sin). This is introduced into our lives at baptism, and it is increased, or deepened, through prayer, fidelity to God's will, and the other sacraments.

There is also sacramental grace, a specific strengthening or benefit unique to each sacrament. For example, the sacramental grace of confession is the forgiveness of personal sins and the strengthening of our will towards future fidelity. The sacramental grace of marriage is the marriage bond which helps both spouses grow in communion with God through living their communion with each other, etc.

Then there is what is commonly referred to as actual grace. This is a boost of supernatural help that comes to assist us in a specific situation. When we talk about "graces," this is usually what we mean – a light from the Holy Spirit, an added dose of patience when I really needed it... These actual graces are distinct from sanctifying grace. So, when non-baptized persons, who probably don’t have sanctifying grace, ask for help from the Holy Spirit, they are asking for this kind of grace, actual grace. And God is always ready to give actual graces, even when we don't ask, to draw us closer to him.

These distinctions may seem persnickety. But let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees. Reflecting on the many ways in which God reaches out to us and stays involved in our lives reminds of the most important thing: that he is our Father, passionately interested in the smallest details of our little, limited world.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

26. GETTING UP TO GO (MT 9:9-13)

2009-07-23T06:30:00.002-06:00

“We open the door at the sound of his voice to receive him, when we freely assent to his promptings, whether secret or open, and when we do what we know we should do. He enters, then, to eat with us and we with him, since he lives in the hearts of his elect by the gift of love.”

- St Bede the Venerable

Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’

CHRIST THE LORD

Jesus Christ makes more “I” statements than any other of the world’s great religious figures, and we shouldn’t overlook this. Buddha pointed to the Four Noble Truths, Mohammad to the words he received from Allah, and even Moses drew his people’s attention to their covenant with God and the Ten Commandments, but Jesus Christ never tires of calling men to himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6); “I am the vine” (John 15:5); “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12); and in this passage: “Follow me… I came to call sinners.” Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone (cf. Acts 4:11), the one foundation upon which the house of our salvation is built (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:11).

CHRIST THE TEACHER

We do not know the background to this dramatic encounter between St Matthew and Jesus Christ. Perhaps Matthew had been following Christ at a distance for some time; perhaps they had known each other for years and only now did Christ call him to closer discipleship; perhaps they had never met before and Christ simply knew at first sight that this man was meant to be one of the Twelve. We do know, however, that Christ really knew Matthew, and that the innocuous phrase “and he got up and followed him” implies a full-scale revolution in Matthew’s life. Leaving behind his lucrative and secure (albeit unpopular) position of collecting taxes for Palestine’s foreign oppressors required taking a risk, to say the least. It required putting more faith in an itinerant carpenter from Galilee than in money, power, and all the pleasures they can offer. Why did Matthew do it? What gave him the courage to forsake the wide and smooth road of the world for the narrow and steep way of Christ?

Christ tells us – he wants us to know so that we can do the same: Matthew recognized and admitted his need for God. “Those who are well do not need a physician… I came to call sinners…” In Christ, God “never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 30), but only those who admit their need can hear his voice. The Pharisees rejected Christ, because they did not believe they needed him; the Law and their own efforts were sufficient, they thought. Matthew (and his fellow sinners) followed him, because Matthew knew that something was missing from his life, and the look of love and power that he saw in Christ’s eyes while he sat tallying coins in the market square gave him hope that in Christ he would find it.

CHRIST THE FRIEND

Christ never let Matthew down in their friendship, and Matthew followed him to the point of giving his life in the name of Jesus. By leaving everything, Matthew experienced what all true Christians experience, over and over again: in letting Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, because he takes nothing away and gives everything.

When Christ calls someone to follow him, it is a dramatic event, a real encounter, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart. Christianity is no abstract philosophy or aloof ideology, but a drama, a “covenant drama,” as the Church calls it (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2567), which addresses every man and woman at the core of their existence as a living, thinking, searching human being. Christianity is communion with God through friendship with Christ – nothing more, but nothing less.

CHRIST IN MY LIFE

I have heard your call in my life; I have recognized you looking me in the eye and inviting me. Let me relive these experiences and thank you for them... Jesus, you call me to follow you because you know me and love me. Only in heaven will I find out how much. I still want to follow you. Keep calling me; you know how hard it is for me to hear your voice amid the jingle of coins...

I sometimes take you for granted. I forget that in the Eucharist, in the priest, and in the Church, you, the very God who created the universe, the only Savior from sin, the perfectly wise and infinitely good Lord are always with me and reaching out to me. Remind me, Lord. Never let me forget. Use me to bring this good news to those around me. I believe in you; help my weak faith…
Jesus, never let me be ashamed to admit my sin. You know me better than I know myself. You invite me to open my heart to you through the channels you have given me, through confession, through the guidance you wish to give me in your representatives. I trust in you, Lord. Nothing can stop you from loving me…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

- Understanding and overcoming scrupulosity - Part II

2009-07-21T03:20:00.003-06:00

Q: Father John, I seem to be struggling with scrupulosity. However, when I read St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, they exhort that any small sin or attachment can keep us from union with God. How do I know if I am scrupulous or just sensitive to sin? How do I avoid taking sin too lightly? If I am scrupulous, how do I overcome it?

A: The word “scrupulous” comes from a Latin word meaning “pebble.” Like a scale that registers the weight of even the tiniest pebble, the scrupulous conscience is thrown into doubts about its love for God and fidelity to God’s will by tiny faults or questions that, objectively, should not disturb its peace. Scrupulous people feel intense anxiety after confession: “Did I confess everything? Did I confess sincerely? Did I explain everything sufficiently?” They also often feel debilitating anxiety about whether or not they are truly in the state of grace, and whether they should receive communion (when we sincerely doubt whether we are in the state of grace, we should make as sincere an act of contrition as we can, and then receive holy Communion). As we explained in the last post, this condition of over-sensitivity can cause great interior suffering.

Whether scruples arise from a combination of personality and circumstance, or whether they are more developed and a true trial allowed by God and sent by the devil, the direct remedy is the same. It consists of practicing the virtue of obedience. This is simpler for those in the religious life than in the lay life. Nevertheless, the principle is the same. Scrupulosity is like a temporary darkening of the conscience; one’s interior compass has gone haywire and you can’t tell what direction you are going in. The only way out is to let oneself be guided by an objective party, a confessor or a spiritual director who knows how to listen, is experienced in the spiritual life and in guiding others, and whom you can trust solidly. If you don’t have a regular confessor or spiritual director, but you find yourself suffering from scruples, that should be a good motivation to ask God to help you find one, then go looking.

The Task of Obedience
When you explain the situation to your director, explain fully why you think you suffering from scruples. The director will listen to the description of your situation, ask some questions, and restate what you have said in such a way that they show they have understood clearly. They may either confirm your suspicion that this is indeed a case of scruples, or they may offer another explanation – a misunderstanding about the difference between venial and mortal sin, a misunderstanding about the nature of a particular sin, another psychological factor… In either case, the key step for you is to obey. Trust that God will use your director to guide you, as he has used directors to guide all the saints. Your director will probably give you some very specific and firm points of work and instruct you to report on them. For instance, as regards the sacrament of reconciliation, he may instruct you to confess specifically only your mortal sins, and to confess all your venial sins together, as a group. He may instruct you to absolutely discard any doubts about whether you have sinned, practically ordering you to admit as sin only those actions where you have absolute, mathematical certitude. He may instruct you, even without giving reasons (scruples can blind our capacity to reason clearly), never to confess again past sins that you have already confessed. He may even tell you that if you do not trust him enough to obey, he will help you find another spiritual director whom you can trust. These kinds of instructions may be hard for you to fulfill, but fulfill them you must, if you want to make your way though the dark valley of scrupulosity and emerge back into the interior peace of a healthy, balanced conscience.

The very nature of the cure, firm and faith-guided obedience to a trustworthy confessor or spiritual director, shows why God at times permits his children (us) to suffer this painful trial: it is an excellent workout for the virtue of humility, and it is a sure way to purify us from hidden attachments.

In our day and age, a lax and lazy conscience is more often met than a scrupulous one. In either case, however, the first sign that we are deviating from the true path of moral and spiritual growth is usually inner turbulence. Our God is a God of peace, and his peace goes deep. When we lose it, that may be because we are trying to paddle through the shallow muskeg of an apparent shortcut.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek

Abandonment XVI - The Hidden Work of Divine Love

2009-07-16T04:00:00.000-06:00

What great truths are hidden from the eyes even of Christians who think themselves most enlightened! How few among them understand that every cross, every circumstance, every leading of the will of God gives us God Himself in a way that can best be explained by comparing them with the most august Mystery of all, the Holy Eucharist.

Yet what is more certain? Does not reason as well as faith reveal to us the presence of divine love in all creatures, and in all the events of life, just as indisputably as the words of Jesus Christ and of the Church reveal the presence of the sacred flesh of our Savior under the Eucharistic elements? Do we not know that by all created things, and by every event God's love desires to unite itself to us, that He has ordained, arranged, or permitted everything that concerns us, everything that happens to us, with a view to this union? This is the sole end of all His designs. To attain this He uses the worst as well as the best of His creatures, the most distressing events as well as those which are pleasant and agreeable, and the more naturally repellant the means of that union, the more meritorious it becomes.

If this is true, why should not each moment of our lives become a form of communion with the love of God? And why should not this communion of every moment produce as much fruit in our souls as that which we receive in the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Son of God? The holy Eucharist, it is true, has a sacramental efficacy which the "sacrament of the present moment" cannot have, but on the other hand, how much more frequently can this form of communion be repeated! And how greatly may its value be increased by the growing perfection of our dispositions towards it! Consequently, how true it is that the more holy the life, the more mysterious it becomes by its apparent simplicity and lowliness!

O heavenly banquet! O never-ending feast! God ever given and received in utter infirmity, weakness and nothingness! That which human nature abhors and human reason rejects, God chooses and makes into mysteries, sacraments of love, and by that which seems as if it would do most harm to souls, He gives Himself to them as often and as much as they desire to possess Him.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

25. Forgiving for Real (Mt 9:1-8)

2009-07-15T04:00:00.000-06:00

“We ought to pity and love our enemies rather than hate and detest them, for they heap up evils on themselves but deserve well of us; they provoke God’s anger against themselves, but adorn us with the crown of eternal glory. We ought to pray for them; we should not be overcome by evil.”

- St Antony Mary Zaccaria

Matthew 9:1-8

He got back in the boat, crossed the water and came to his own town. Then some people appeared, bringing him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Courage, my child, your sins are forgiven’. And at this some scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming’. Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said, ‘Why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts? Now, which of these is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he said to the paralytic – ‘get up, and pick up your bed and go off home’. And the man got up and went home. A feeling of awe came over the crowd when they saw this, and they praised God for giving such power to men.

Christ the Lord

Jesus has just exhibited his power over the effects of sin (sickness, natural adversity) and the instigator of evil (the devil). Now St Matthew completes the grand slam by showing how Jesus absolves us from sin itself.

The other miracles could be taken as signs that Jesus is merely a great prophet, but by forgiving sins Christ leaves no room to doubt that he claims to be much more. In the Old Covenant, only God could forgive sins, because every sin was a rebellion against God, a conscious refusal to adhere to the truth of life’s purpose as established by God. Furthermore, in the Old Covenant, this forgiveness could only be obtained through the ritual sacrifices in the Temple stipulated by the Mosaic Law.

When the paralytic comes before Jesus to be healed, the Lord goes to the root of the man’s true need and assures him that his sins are forgiven. The Jewish scholars observing the encounter are immediately suspicious of such a divine claim being made so unceremoniously by an upstart rabbi. Jesus acknowledges (but doesn’t validate) their suspicion, and then performs the miracle to show that instead of being blasphemous, his claim is true. He can’t make the actual forgiveness of sins visible, but he can make the paralytic walk, which certainly shows that he can do what he says – more than enough proof to allay their doubts.

Once again, Christ shows that he is much more than a wise philosopher; he is Emmanuel, God among us - the Lord of life and history.

Christ the Teacher

St. Matthew points out that Jesus saw the faith of the people who brought the sick man to Jesus, not the paralyzed man’s faith, and thistriggered Christ’s saving action. The paralyzed man was unable to come to Jesus on his own power. Others brought him to the Lord, and the Lord honored their selfless, faith-filled deed. How many people whose souls are paralyzed by sin and doubt need the prayers and charity of faith-filled Christians to bring them into contact with Christ’s saving grace!

St Matthew also subtly explains why the Jewish leaders didn’t recognize Christ as the Messiah (notice that it is precisely here, at the crescendo of the series of miracles, where the opposition between those leaders and Jesus begins). They had already formed an idea of what the Messiah would be, and they left no room for God to outdo their expectations by coming himself. They had closed their minds; they were attached to their own ideas, their own standards, their own limited understanding – they thought they had God all figured out. It is a common failure among people who seem to be experts in religion. They think they know it all, and they end up missing God’s most wonderful surprises. But the humble folk who recognized their own limitations and God’s greatness were open to the awe-inspiring glory of Christ. The arrogant scribes went home angry and unhappy; the humble crowed went home rejoicing.

Christ the Friend

Jesus calls the sick man “my child,” and then happily and generously relieves the greatest burden of his life – the gnawing guilt of his violated conscience.

How glad Christ is to welcome us into his family! How eager he is to forgive us, to renew us, to enlighten and strengthen our anxious and tired souls! All we have to do is come to him with faith and admit our needs, our helplessness, our sins. The Tabernacle, an ongoing appointment that Christ never misses; the confessional, a failsafe loving embrace and perpetual fresh start; the Gospels, a fountain of truth and grace that flows without respite – a Christian can find peace of heart wherever he turns, if only he doesn’t turn away from Christ.

Jesus: Come to me and I will heal you, I will set you free. Come to me in the Tabernacle, in all my sacraments, in the inspired word of the Bible! Come to me when you are filled with joy, as well as when you are crushed with troubles! When you turn to me in your weakness and acknowledge in all humility your need, then my mercy can make you walk once more, can make your heart resound with true peace and joy. Let me reach into the deepest recesses of your soul, bringing light to the hidden crevices carved by sin.

Christ in My Life

The world is full of so many promises, Lord. So many gurus and life coaches and therapists promise to show the way to peace and wholeness. But can they forgive sins? Only you can reach into the depths of my soul; only you can see even deeper than I can; only you can heal me and cleanse me and give me a new start. Thank you, Lord, for coming to forgive my sins and for giving me a new start, as often as I need one…

Certainly you have more that you want to do in me and through me. I don’t want to hinder you by stubbornly sticking to my own desires and plans if you are leading me along new paths. Your will, Lord, is beyond my comprehension; your plan is greater than I can imagine. Guide me, as you have promised to do, in spite of my selfishness and arrogance. Teach me to be humble, so I can be filled with awe and joy in the face of your wonderful deeds…

What do I enjoy most and value most about being a Christian and a member of your Church? So many things, Lord. Let me savor them… Thank you for those gifts, Lord. I know that your love for me is as vast as the heavens, though at times it’s hard for me to accept. I want to use your gifts and rejoice in them. Teach me, Lord, to do your will…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

To learn more, or purchase “The Better Part – A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer,” click HERE.

- Understanding and overcoming scrupulosity - Part I

2009-07-13T04:00:00.001-06:00

A: First thing: if you are sincerely concerned about not taking sin too lightly, you can rest assured that you are not taking sin too lightly. If, on the other hand, you find yourself convinced that you really don’t sin and don’t ever need to go to confession, then you are probably taking sin too lightly. All the saints were keenly aware that they were sinners and made good use of the sacrament of confession. Now on to the heart of your question.

Scrupulosity is oversensitivity to faults. It consists in seeing sin where there is no sin, which causes us to become emotionally tense and spiritually tied up in knots. It paralyzes the will, fills the mind with turbulence, and can cause intense interior suffering. Since it comes in different forms and from different sources (and since the word itself is slippery), there is no single solution. We’ll tackle this one in two parts. First we’ll look at the types and causes of scrupulosity, then we’ll examine the practical question of what to do about it.

Sin Matters

Sin is disobedience to God’s express will. It is a rebellion against God, a breaking of the eternal law. As such, it offends God (just as teenagers who insult their parents offend their parents). As a result, it disrupts, weakens, or ruptures our friendship with God. And since friendship with God is the whole purpose of our existence, sin is our arch-enemy, the source of all unhappiness and tragedy.

Today’s culture tends to minimize and belittle sin. What matters to a hedonistic, relativistic consumer society is comfort and personal autonomy. Where does sin fit into an ethos like that? There is no eternal law to break, no universal moral order against which to rebel, no Father to offend. This poisonous ethos has a powerful ally inside each one of us: our fallen human nature. We have an enemy within. We tend towards self-centeredness (to which any parent of a two-year-old will eloquently attest). This is why most spiritual directors would agree that a scrupulous conscience is less common than its co-conspirator, a lax conscience.

The essential evil of sin explains why St Teresa and St John of the Cross so fervently exhort us to mercilessly excise every sinful habit and tame every wild tendency. We must give no quarter to sin and make no compromise with temptation – just ask Eve. Sometimes the term scrupulous or scruples is used by folks who have made a pact with certain personal sins in order to criticize other folks who have refused to make treaties with the devil. Their conscience is bothering them, and the presence of people more upright than themselves exacerbates the bother, so they use the label “scrupulous” as a shield.

Personality-Based Scrupulosity

Scrupulosity understood properly, however, is an authentic spiritual difficulty. It comes most often in two forms. The first is related to certain personalities. Whether by temperament, upbringing, or a combination, some people have a strong tendency towards perfectionism. When they begin taking seriously the adventure of holiness, this tendency can help, usually by energizing their efforts and giving them staying power in the face of difficulties. But the same tendency can tangle things up. God works patiently; perfectionist tend to be impatient. This impatience can take the guise of paralyzing discouragement or even desperation in the face of one’s imperfections. Keenly aware of their shortcomings, these personalities often equate holiness with impeccability – they can start straining out gnats while they still need to stop swallowing camels.

An interior flash of self-centered anger or impatience, for example, is rightly recognized as a fault – it flows from the selfish tendencies in the soul, tendencies which are un-Christlike and need to be purified. But God is less interested in the selfish flash itself than in how we react to such things. As soon as we recognize it, we should reign it in, like a dog that wants to run out of its leash. Exerting our faith and willpower to keep that selfish flesh from turning into self-righteous judgments, wounding words, or spiteful actions – that’s what should concern us. If we think we have already sinned just because the flash flashed, we are being scrupulous. Our sinful tendencies are not sins; they can be the source of sins, if we let them. But if, with God’s grace, we fight against them, the powers of our soul will gradually be trained to react less violently and less selfishly. In that way, we grow in virtue.

Turmoil and Temptation

The second form of scrupulosity comes from the devil in the form of a temptation. In this spiritual attack, the person who is sincerely seeking holiness and has made progress towards it is suddenly confronted with doubts about what God’s will really is for them. If sin can be understood as rebellious disobedience to God’s will, holiness is its contrary: loving obedience to God’s will. But what if you start seeing God’s will everywhere? What if you start thinking that choosing which outfit to wear has as much moral and spiritual weight as obeying the commandment against murder? Well, you think to yourself, what I wear does matter to God – he wants me to reflect his dignity, but he also wants me to avoid ostentation and provocation. So what is his will for me? Which outfit should I wear?... These kind of doubts can also come in even more subtle forms. We experience a flash of interior anger; we govern it as Christ would have us; all is well. But then, we start wondering why the flash happened in the first place. Did I encourage it without realizing it? Did I allow a selfish thought to take root in my mind, and the thought bore the fruit of that flash? Am I doing something to displease God that I don’t even realize?... And we find ourselves in a labyrinth of doubts and “what ifs” and “maybes” that really torture the soul and won’t leave it in peace. It is a trial, and it can be severe, that many saints have undergone.

Sometimes this second kind of scrupulosity can also derive from psychological conditions that are clinically treatable, chemical imbalances or wounds from trauma. It is not always easy to tell the difference. Usually it takes looking at other factors and behavior patterns in a person’s life, not just the scrupulosity itself.

Those are the common manifestations of scrupulosity, or over-sensitivity to faults. More could be said about each one, but that’s enough to lay the groundwork for the next post, which will examine some tactics for dealing with scrupulosity in practice.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

24. Evil at Bay (Mt 8:28-34)

2009-07-08T07:08:00.003-06:00

“And therefore the Word of God, God, the Son of God, who in the beginning was with God and through whom all things were made and without whom was not anything made, became man to liberate man from eternal death.”

- Pope St Leo the Great

Matthew 8:28-34

When he reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs – creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way. They stood there shouting, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?’ Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding, and the devils pleaded with Jesus, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs’. And he said to them, ‘Go then’, and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off and made for the town, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs. At this the whole town set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave the neighbourhood.

Christ the Lord

St. Matthew’s presentation of Christ’s credentials continues. He has shown his mastery over sickness of every kind and over the powerful forces of the natural world, so antagonistic to mankind after original sin. Now Jesus unfurls his lordship over the very source of evil in the world, the devil and his minions.

The demons recognize Jesus as the Messiah and even try to reproach him for interfering with their evil conquests. Their comment about “before the time” refers to the final judgment, when history’s ongoing battle between good and evil will come to its definitive end. But their hideous and violent outbursts, so fearsome that no one even dared to travel that road, failed to daunt Jesus in the least. His mere presence tortures them. They grovel before him and beg for a smattering of clemency. He grants it, and at the same time, with merely a word, he releases these two men from their seemingly hopeless slavery.

This show of spiritual force sends shock waves through the entire town. The whole population recognizes the superior power of Jesus, but they don’t know what to make of it. Gadara was a Gentile town; its inhabitants didn’t have the benefit of the Jewish faith. They only realize that this man’s continued presence will disrupt their usual routine, even more than the demons’ presence did. They fear the disruption and ask Jesus to leave them in peace. Knowing that they are not ready for his message, Jesus complies.

Nothing escapes the lordship of Christ, not sickness, not storms, not demons. But he won’t force his way into anyone’s life – he is the Lord, but he is not a tyrant.

Christ the Teacher

One of the major players in the Gospels is the devil. In this encounter, Jesus teaches us two things about the devil.

First, he shows unambiguously that the devil and his fellow demons really do exist. Every few decades, it becomes fashionable to reinterpret Christ’s exorcisms as merely his condescension to the superstitions of the time, in spite of the Church’s clear doctrine to the contrary. Those reinterpreters get flustered by this passage. If Jesus had simply sent the demons right back to hell, it would allow such theorists to speculate that maybe these two supposedly possessed men were just insane, and Jesus simply cured their psyches. (And while healing of their troubled psyches was indeed significant, that alone doesn’t explain how they could recognize Christ as the Son of God, but we’ll ignore that for now). But Christ sends the demons into a herd of pigs, and the demons drive the pigs over the cliff into the sea. And so, it’s much more difficult to interpret this frightening event as a mere psychological malfunction. No, the devil indeed exists.

The second lesson teaches us what the devil wants: destruction. He wants to destroy our happiness, our health, our prosperity (he threw the poor pig farmers into the red, let alone the damage he did to the two possessed men), and most of all our relationship with God. This is the single motivation behind every temptation, no matter how tempting. This seems like an obvious lesson, and yet, every time we give into temptation, we seem to forget it.

Christ the Friend

Without Christ, we would all still be floundering in ignorance and helplessness in the face of evil. He has come to bring us light and strength, to lead us back to full spiritual, intellectual, and moral health – and eventually, to have our very bodies share in the glory of his Resurrection. All of his words, miracles, and deeds were performed for us – for our benefit, for our salvation, and for our health in body, mind, and spirit. Jesus looks into our eyes today, just as he looked into the faces of these two demoniacs two thousand years ago; he wants to set us free. Will we let him?

The Demoniacs: Lord, we will never forget that first moment after you freed us from the power of those demons. It was too good to be true. Thank you, Lord, for setting us free. You gave us a new life, a new chance to live. Now we can see clearly that every day is a gift. Every day we can choose to live in your presence, to glorify you by loving you and loving our neighbor, by bringing the good news of your salvation to everyone around us. We were helpless before. Evil had put our minds in chains. You know what it was like, because you know all things. Still, so many of our brothers and sisters are in chains – they are looking for freedom and happiness in all the wrong places, striving for success by sin and selfishness, and getting tangled up in frustration and depression. Are you not the same Lord today that you were that day when you freed us? Come, Lord, make us channels of your saving grace, never let us forget what you did for us, never let us take this life, this new chance, this day, for granted.

Christ in My Life

Sometimes I am like the inhabitants of Gadara: I don’t want you to disrupt my usual routines. But in my heart I know that anything you ask of me, through my conscience, through the Church’s teachings, through circumstances – anything you ask flows directly from your infinite wisdom. Flood my life with your wisdom and your truth; cleanse my selfishness; make me shine with true virtue. Come, Lord Jesus…

When you made me your disciple, you shared your mission with me. You want to work through me to help set free people who are trapped in sin and error. Help me to keep this as a priority! I think of how much you have done for me – and you want to do that and more for everyone I encounter, especially the ones suffering most. Lord, make me a channel of your peace…

Thank you, Lord, for all your gifts to me – life, faith, hope, knowledge, forgiveness, and those special graces only you and I know about. You know I trust in you. I really do, though I am weak and careless. Lord Jesus, with you all things are possible…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

To learn more, or purchase “The Better Part – A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer,” click HERE.

- How do I deal with isolation and loneliness - particularly in my spiritual life?

2009-07-07T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: St. Teresa, I am committed to developing my prayer life and life of virtue but I am feeling isolated, lonely, and I am struggling. What should I do?

A: A great evil it is for a soul to be alone in the midst of so many dangers. It seems to me that if I should have had someone to talk with (through my spiritual struggles) it would have helped me...

For this reason, I would counsel those who practice prayer to seek, at least at the beginning, friendship and association with other persons that have the same interest. This is something most important even though the association may be only to help one another with prayers. The more of these prayers there are, the greater the gain. Since friends are sought out for conversations and human attachments, even though these latter may not be good, so as to relax and better enjoy telling about vain pleasures, I don’t know why it is not more common that persons beginning truly to love and to serve God talk with some others about their joys and trials, which all who practice prayer undergo. For if the friendship they desire to have with His Majesty is authentic, there is no reason to fear vainglory. And when these persons overcome vainglory in its first stirrings, they come away with merit. I believe that they who discuss these joys and trials for the sake of friendship with God will benefit themselves and those who hear them, and they will come away instructed; even without understanding how, they will have instructed their friends.

Since this spiritual friendship is so extremely important for souls not yet fortified in virtue – since they have so many opponents and friends to incite them to evil – I don’t know how to urge it enough. It seems to me the devil has used the following artifice as something very important to him: those who truly want to love and to please God are as hidden as other unrighteous persons are incited to make their evil known so evil becomes so customary it seems socially justified; and the offenses committed against God in this matter are published.

…There is so much sluggishness in matters having to do with the service of God that it is necessary for those who serve Him to become shields for one another that they might advance. For it is considered good to walk in the vanities and pleasures of the world, and those who don’t are unnoticed. If any begin to give themselves to God, there are so many to criticize them that they need to seek companionship to defend themselves until they are so strong that it is no longer a burden for them to suffer this criticism. And if they don’t seek this companionship, they will find themselves in much difficulty.

…And it is a kind of humility not to trust oneself but to believe that through those with whom one converses with God will help and increase charity while it is being shared. And there area a thousand graces I would not dare speak of if I did not have powerful experience of the benefit that comes from this sharing.

It is true that I am the weakest and most wicked of all human beings. But I believe they will not be lost who, humbling themselves, even though they be strong, do not believe by themselves but believe this one who has experience. Of myself I know and say that if the Lord had not revealed this to me and given me the means by which I could ordinarily talk with persons who practiced prayer, I, falling and rising would have ended by throwing myself straight into hell. For in falling I had many friends to help me; but in rising I found myself so alone that I am now amazed I did not remain ever fallen. And I praise the mercy of God for it was He alone who gave me His hand. May he be blessed forever and ever. Amen

St. Teresa of Avila

(Adapted from Life, Ch 7, pg 92-94, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Volume One, ICS Publications, Washington D.C. 1987)

- Thank You for Your Support! – CSD Wins Catholic New Media Award!

2009-07-06T13:32:00.002-06:00

Catholic Spiritual Direction Blog - Winner of Catholic New Media Award

We are happy to report that, with your help, Catholic Spiritual Direction has won the 2009 Catholic New Media Award under the category of "Most Spiritual Blog." The recognition that comes from this reward will help us to continue to spread authentic Catholic spirituality to those who desire to move deeper into the faith, and deeper into Christ.

We are grateful for your nomination, your votes, your constant flow of encouraging notes and dialogue, and for your assistance in bringing the endless depth and beauty of Christ's church to more and more around the world.

God Bless.

Seek Him - Find Him - Follow Him

Dan

- I am struggling with the violent content of psalms – can you provide me with insight on how you deal with this?

2009-07-06T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: Lately I have started praying the Psalms, even using some of the Liturgy of the Hours. Every once in awhile, I run across sections that throw me for a loop. I mean, there are phrases like “Destroy them in your anger, destroy them till they are no more” (Psalm 59:13) and “Repay them as their deeds deserve, as befits their treacherous actions; as befits their handiwork repay them, let their deserts fall back on themselves” (Psalm 28:4). It’s hard for me to pray these prayers, when I think of what Jesus said, “Love your enemies...” I know priests pray the Psalms all the time in the breviary. How do you deal with all these condemning, violent references?

A: This is a great question, and I can’t promise to give a complete or completely satisfying answer. The Bible is God’s Word, his own revelation. We have to remember that it contains much more than we can fathom. It would be naïve (at best) to think that we can fully understand the eternal Lord. St. John Chrysostom likened the Bible to a gushing spring on a mountainside. It never stops flowing with clear, cool, and refreshing water, but when we go to drink, we can’t possible take it all in. We drink a minuscule amount, just enough to slake our thirst for a while. Then we go back, but that fountain keeps gushing. So let’s try to take a cup full by reflecting on your question.

Making the Case

First, let me up your ante. The phrases you quote are tough, but we can find even tougher ones. In Psalm 140 (verses 8-11) the psalmist prays to the Lord on behalf of his enemies as follows:

Lord, do not grant the wicked their wishes, do not let their plots succeed. Do not let my attackers prevail, but let them be overwhelmed by their own malice. May red-hot embers rain down on them, may they be flung into the mire once and for all. May the slanderer find no rest anywhere, may evil hunt down violent men implacably.

In Psalm 109 (verse 8-11), the psalmist prays for God to treat his enemy like this:

May his life be cut short, someone else take over his office, his children be orphaned, his wife be widowed. May his children wander perpetually, beggars, driven from the ruins of their house, a creditor seize all his goods, and strangers make off with his earnings.

Psalm 110:6 gives praise to God in a way rather alarming to our modern sensibilities: “He judges nations, heaping up corpses, he breaks heads over the whole wide world.”

I include these quotations just to reiterate your point: this violence is not an aberration or exception in the Book of Psalms; it is present throughout, so wondering how to deal with it is a legitimate concern. And since you asked me specifically how I deal with it, that’s what I’ll tell you. I deal with it in two ways.

Real Prayer

First, passages like these can remind us that God knows how to deal with real people and their real struggles. Obviously, the author of this Psalm was writing from his heart. He makes a sincere plea that God intervene in his troubles, getting rid of their source. The psalmist is approaching God with total confidence. The psalmist is aware of his status as a child of God, a member of God’s chosen people. The psalmist is convinced that God really cares about things that matter to him personally, and that God has the capacity to intervene and make a difference. How it must have thrilled God’s heart to hear a prayer uttered with such vibrant, honest, and earthy faith! It was not the prayer of an angel, but the prayer of a man, a human being who is trying to live his God-given mission with gusto, and is faced with powerful enemies and thorny obstacles. Is that how we pray? Is that our attitude towards God?

We tend to overlook the brilliant quality of these prayers. Our attention immediately goes to the vengeful emotions and the violent emotions and desires that Jesus taught us to purify. But the psalmist lived before the fullness of revelation in Christ. There was nothing in Old Testament theology that forbade vengeance and violence against one’s enemies. The people of Israel understood only that God had chosen them to be a nation set apart, that he had promised to protect them and make them prosper, if they obeyed his commandments. Other peoples, pagan nations who didn’t know the Lord and worshipped idols, were not on the same level as themselves. Their enemies, from their perspective, were God’s enemies. God had as yet revealed neither Christ’s universal love and limitless mercy, nor mankind’s universal brotherhood in the Church. God was patiently and wisely priming history of the Incarnation when the psalmist was writing.

Emotional Power

Second, although Jesus taught us to purify vengeful, angry emotions and violent desires, the Church assures us that he never meant to eliminate them. They are part of being human. In the face of evil and unjust opposition, virtuous Christians need the help of strong emotions in order to do the right thing. The man who feels no anger at injustice may be falling into spiritual sloth. The purification of these inevitable human experiences involves directing them towards their true object: sin and the devil. The real enemy of our souls, the real enemy of the Church, is sin. And the devil is the shepherd of sin. The vehement expressions and sentiments of the psalmist are healthy when directed against sin and the devil. We should hate sin, in all its forms, though we must strive to love sinners and work energetically for their redemption. In other words, the violent images in the Psalm are an inspired way for us to understand how anti-sin we really should be.

Encountering violence in the Psalms, then, gives us a chance to learn how to be honest and passionate in our prayer, and it also turns our irascible tendencies into vital allies in our fight for truth, justice, and holiness.

Your is Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Abandonment XV - Christian's Disregard of God's Action

2009-07-02T06:19:00.002-06:00

What infidelity there is in the world! How unworthy are men's thoughts of God! We constantly complain of His action in a way we would not use towards the lowest of workmen about his trade. We would reduce God's action ot the limits and rules of our feeble reason. We presume to imagine that we can improve on His acts. These are nothing but complaints and murmurings.

We are surprised at the treatment endured by Jesus at the hands of the Jews. O divine love! adorable Will of God! infallible truth! in what way are you treated? Can God's will ever be inopportune? Can it be mistaken? "But there is this business of mine! I require such and such a thing! The necessary helps for my purpose have been taken from me. That man thwarts all my good works. Is it not most unreasonable? This illness comes on just when my health is most important to me." To all this there is but one answer: that the will of God is the only thing necessary; therefore what it does not grant must be useless.

My good souls, nothing is lacking to you. If you only knew what these events really are that you call misfortunes, accidents, and disappointments, and in which you can see nothing but what you consider out of place or unreasonable, you would be deeply ashamed. You would blame yourselves for your complainings as blasphemous. But you never think of these happenings as being the will of God, and His adorable will is blasphemed by His own dear children who refuse to acknowledge it.

When You were on earth, my dear Jesus, you were treated as a demoniac. They called You a Samaritan. And now, although it is acknowledged that You live and work through all the centuries of time, how is Your adorable will received - that will which is worthy of all blessing and praise? Has one moment passed from the creation of the world to the present time, and will there pass one from now to the day of judgment in which the holy name of God is not worthy of praise - that name which fills all the ages and everything that happens in them, and makes them holy? What? Can the will of God do me harm? Shall I fear, or fly from the will of God? And where shall I look to find anything better if I dread God's purpose for me, His will in my regard?

We ought to listen attentively to that inner voice in the depths of our hearts at every moment. If our understanding and reason to not comprehend or grasp the truth and goodness of these words, is it not because they are incapable of appreciating diving truths? Should we be amazed that our reason is confused by mysteries? When God speaks it is a mystery, and therefore a death-blow to my senses and my reason, for it is the nature of mysteries to confound both. Mystery makes the soul live by faith; everything else sees it as nothing but contradiction. God's action by one and the same stroke kills and gives life: the more one feels the death to the senses and reason, the more convinced should we become that it is bringing life to the soul. The darker the mystery, the more light it contains. This is why a simple soul finds nothing more divine than that which has the least appearance of being divine. The life of faith is a continual struggle against the senses.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

23. The Cost of Calm (Mt 8:18-27)

2009-07-01T04:00:00.000-06:00

“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. All other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him fulfill the end for which he is created.”

- St Ignatius of Loyola

Matthew 8:18-27

When Jesus saw the great crowds all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side. One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go’. Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’. Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father first’. But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead’. Then he got into the boat followed by his disciples. Without warning a storm broke over the lake, so violent that the waves were breaking right over the boat. But he was asleep. So they went to him and woke him saying, ‘Save us, Lord, we are going down!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened, you men of little faith?’ And with that he stood up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and all was calm again. The men were astounded and said, ‘Whatever kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him.’

Christ the Lord

St. Matthew is still showing us Jesus’ credentials. Not only does he heal the sick, but he also has power over the elements of nature. Storms were frequent in the Sea of Galilee, situated like a bowl surrounded by mountains, whence strong winds came sweeping across the water; violent storms would brew suddenly and then just as quickly play themselves out. At least some of the disciples present were fishermen, so they knew the weather patterns well, and they knew how to navigate a boat to ride out a storm. For them to panic means that the situation was truly perilous – the waves were high enough and the wind strong enough that they feared shipwreck. And yet, for Jesus, all it takes is a word to rein in the violent primal forces.

The passage is reminiscent of the Book of Jonah. Jonah too was asleep in the hold while the ship’s crew panicked. In that case as well, God calmed the sea in an instant – as soon as they threw the disobedient prophet into the water. But there is a difference. In Jesus, St. Matthew shows us, the very God who acted from on high to bring Jonah to Nineveh has come to dwell among men. No wonder the disciples were “amazed” – they were just starting to get the picture: Jesus is the Lord.

Christ the Teacher

The Church has long seen in this passage an analogy for the life of every Christian. The storm rages and threatens and batters the boat – just as temptations, sufferings, persecutions, and difficulties unceasingly beat against the mind and will of the Christian. Sometimes it seems that they are too much – the journey of doing God’s will is simply too difficult. Panic sets in. But the Holy Trinity has been in the Christian’s soul the entire time, ever since the day of baptism. And when human efforts fail to calm the storm, the Christian remembers the Lord, turns to him, and asks for help. Soon Jesus restores the “great calm” that comes from confiding in the power and the promises of God instead of in the dim knowledge and withered strength of self.

St. Therese of Lisieux used to meditate on this passage in times of inner turmoil or darkness. But she wouldn’t wake up the Lord. For her, it was enough to go over and sit beside him as he slept. Let the tempest rage; stay close to Christ and all will be well.

Christ the Friend

At this point in St. Matthew’s Gospel Jesus has not yet called apart his Twelve Apostles. A larger group of disciples, including the future Twelve, is following him. As he prepares to get away from the crowds and spend some time with them across the Sea of Galilee, a couple of newcomers approach him and ask to be let into the group. They have been watching and listening, and Jesus has moved their hearts. But the Lord doesn’t exactly welcome them with open arms.

He doesn’t send them away, but he does point out that following him will not be easy. They will have to forego some of the comforts and stability enjoyed by their peers and neighbors (“the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head”); they will have to make their relationship with him their highest priority – even higher than good and natural family ties (the disciple who requests that Jesus let him “bury his father” is expressing his willingness to follow Christ in the future, after his father dies, when it would be more convenient). Christ is a friend who loves too intensely not to demand the very best for his friends. Whenever he makes demands, it’s only because he loves.

Christ in My Life

You are so patient with me, and you stay so close to me, that sometimes I forget about your greatness. You inspired awe in your disciples. There have been moments when I too have experienced profound reverence in your presence. Jesus, don’t let me take you for granted. Remind me of your greatness; make me worthy to serve such a Lord; make me follow you as you deserved to be followed…

Are you pleased with how I react to the storms that come into my life? They are precious moments, when things come into focus, when you remind me of my fragility and weakness. I want to stay close to you; I want to lean on you; I want to work hard for your Kingdom and even suffer for it, but always with a joyful heart, because you are always in the boat of my soul…

What are you asking of me right now, at this specific point in my life, that makes me uncomfortable? Is our friendship worth that kind of sacrifice? All I have to do is look at the crucifix and you give me the answer: of course it is. I want to follow you, Lord, and I want to help many others follow you as well. You are my life and my salvation – what could I possible fear?...

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

To learn more, or purchase “The Better Part – A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer,” click HERE.

- I am struggling with the idea of "practicing the presence of God" - what can I do?

2009-06-29T06:00:00.004-06:00

Q: I have had a pretty regular prayer life for a few years, and have been going to confession regularly as well, and receiving Communion frequently. In my spiritual reading, though, I keep coming across the idea of “practicing the presence of God.” This means staying aware of Jesus throughout the day’s activities, right? Well, I have been trying to do this, but can’t seem to make any progress. The end of the day comes around, and then I remember that I should have been aware of his presence. Is this something I should be worried about?

A: A beautiful question. Beautiful for two reasons: 1) If “practicing the presence of God” keeps coming up in your personal reading and reflection, you can be sure it’s because the Holy Spirit wants you to keep this on your spiritual agenda. This is how he coaches us – he puts something on our minds or hearts, and he keeps insisting on it. And if God is drawing you towards this rather advanced spiritual discipline, it means that he is already helping you grow in it. This is good stuff, altogether; 2) “Practicing the presence of God” will draw you closer to Christ than you ever dreamed possible, and that’s what it’s all about. Now onto the answer.

No, you should not be worried about your difficulty or confusion in this area, you should be excited about it: God is teaching you something new! Worry doesn’t come from God (if you mean by worrying a preoccupation that causes turbulence, doubt, and frustration in your soul). It comes from our pride, our tendency to think that we can make ourselves perfect and save the world by our own efforts. Remember, our Lord reminded us: “Do not fret about tomorrow, let tomorrow fret over its own cares. For today, today’s troubles are enough” (Matthew 6:34).

On the other hand, your instinct is right: this is a point of spiritual work that you should pay attention to at this point in your journey; this is why God has put it on your agenda. And here are some considerations that may help you do that.

What does it mean? “Practicing the presence of God” means not only staying aware of Jesus throughout the day, as you mention. That’s part of it, but not all of it. Practicing God’s presence means living every activity of the day with Jesus, by his side, sharing every experience with him. Remember in your school days, how it was always more enjoyable to do your homework together with a good friend instead of all by yourself? You didn’t have to be doing the exact same assignments, and you didn’t even have to be helping each other, but the mere fact that you together, that you were sitting in the same room, maybe at the same table, that you were in each other’s presence and could throw a couple words or looks back and forth every once awhile – that was enough to change the character of doing homework. Think of another example. How often do you go to a movie all by yourself? Not very often, most likely, unless you are a professional movie critic or some sort. You go to a movie with a good friend. And even though you don’t spend those two hours talking with your friend, sharing the experience with that other person makes the experience more valuable, fruitful, and enjoyable. This sharing of experiences – the experience of every activity of every day – with Christ, allowing him to share the experience of your life, that is the real heart of “practicing the presence of God.”

What does it yield? As we grow in this spiritual discipline, it has a major effect on our lives. We were created to “live in communion with God, in whom we find happiness” (Catechism #45). But in this fallen world, and due to our fallen nature, we tend towards a false sense of self-sufficiency. This stifles our growth as human beings. Instead of growing in wisdom, wonder, courage and all the virtues, when we live as if we were sufficient unto ourselves, we end up taking that path that eventually turns us into crotchety old men (or women), self-absorbed and self-absorbing, like black holes. Practicing the presence of God helps us maintain and deepen our communion with God even in the midst of the trials and tribulations of life in a fallen world with a fallen human nature. This is the path to holiness, God’s term for lasting happiness.

How to do it? Since everyone’s friendship with God is unique, no generic formula will suffice for developing this spiritual discipline. Nevertheless, some common principles apply to all of us.

First of all, we need to develop the basic spiritual disciplines you mention in your question: a structured and consistent daily prayer life (this doesn’t have to be as complicated as a monastic prayer life, just sincere and substantial); regular and fruitful reception of the sacraments, especially Communion and confession (this is the objective foundation of our communion with God – God’s grace is the stuff of which our friendship with Christ is made); and a reasonable, mature effort to overcome one’s selfish tendencies and to grow in virtue (spiritual reading, a program of life, and spiritual direction are a big help here, as we’ve mentioned in other posts).
Secondly, we can experiment with practical techniques that will help us form the habit of remembering that we are never alone, that Jesus is at our side, eager to share our experiences and make them fruitful and meaningful. Here is where tactics like the spiritual bouquet come into play (choosing a phrase at the end of the morning meditation that you will use as a motto for the day, to keep in mind the insights and resolutions that came up in your meditation). Here we can also get creative: using a screen-saver that will remind you of the Lord; keeping religious articles visible in key places that you will frequent during the day; programming reminders into your email calendar; praying the Angelus whenever you get into the car to go for a drive; dropping by a local shrine, chapel, or church on your way home from work, school, or shopping… Since the current of the culture in which we live flows in the direction of self-centeredness and self-absorption, we have to make a positive effort to swim against it. Practical tactics can help. But here’s a warning: these are only means to an end, so don’t be surprised if one such tactic helps you for a while but then stops “working.” When that happens, experiment with something else. I would love to hear about some of the tactics that our readers have used and found most helpful (just add them at the end of this post as a comment).
Thirdly, and most importantly, you (and all of us, really) need to ask yourself why it has been difficult for you to “practice the presence of God.” Part of the reason will simply be the superficiality and pace of our culture. Part of the reason will also be habits of self-centeredness that you haven’t yet overcome. But a deeper reason may also be at work. When you go to a dinner party with people who are important, fashionable, and popular, but who you don’t know very well, you are a bit nervous. You are worried about making the right impression. You don’t want to commit a faux pas or inadvertently offend someone. You are excited to be invited, but the excitement is mixed in with some tension. Whether things go well or ill, at the end of the night, when you get back in the car to head home, you breathe a sigh of relief; driving home with your spouse or with an old friend, you can be yourself again. At the party you were sharing experiences with people, you were living in their presence, but you didn’t have a relationship of trust with them. With your old friend, on the other hand, you never have to worry about making a good impression; you don’t have to be anxious about what they may think of you. Your relationship is solid, resilient, familiar – you can relax together. At times, the biggest obstacle to our “practicing the presence of God” is a subtle, subconscious fear about what God thinks of us. In the back of our mind, we are concerned about making the right impression in God’s eyes, and so when we are “in his presence” we put on a show; we watch carefully over every word instead of speaking simply and from the heart; we try to live up to standards that we imagine God is expecting of us; we are afraid that if we don’t meet those extra expectations, God will be displeased with us – he won’t invite us back to the next party. This mindset discourages us from living in God’s presence, because we can’t relax, we can’t be ourselves if we are trying to live up to artificial expectations.

But God is not like that. He is not watching us like a hawk, just waiting for that faux pas, just looking for something to criticize. He knows us through and through already. He truly is the only friend who is perfect and perfectly committed to us. He wants to share every moment of our life, because he is simply that interested in our lives, like the oldest friend, the one we can always count on. That is how God is. The more deeply and fully we believe that, the easier and more natural it will be to live always in his presence.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Abandonment IV - God's Word Written on the Heart

2009-06-25T04:00:00.002-06:00

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever, " says the Apostle (Hebrews 13:8). From the beginning of the world He was, as God, the source of the life of righteous souls. From the first moment of His incarnation, His humanity shared this prerogative of His divinity. He is working within us throughout our whole lives. The time that will elapse till the end of the world is but as a day, and this day abounds with His action. Jesus Christ lived, and lives still. He began in Himself and He continues in His saints a life that will never end.

O life of Jesus! including and extending beyond all the ages of time! Life working new wonders of grace at every moment! If not one is capable of understanding all that could be written of the earthly life of Jesus, all that He did and said while He was on earth - if the Gospel merely outlines a few of its features - how many Gospels would have to be written to record the history of all the moments of this mystical life of Jesus Christ which multiplies miracles to infinity and eternity! If the beginning of His natural life is so hidden and yet so fruitful, what can be said of the effect of that life of which every age of the world is the history?

The Holy Spirit has pointed out some moments in the ocean of time in the infallible words of the Holy Scriptures. In them we see the hidden and mysterious ways by which He has manifested Jesus Christ to the world. Amid the confusion of the races of men, we can follow the channels and veigns that distinguish the origin, race and genealogy of the Firstborn. The entire Old Testament is but an outline of the profound mystery of this divine work; it contains only what is necessary to reach the advent of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit kept all the rest hidden among the treasures of His wisdom. From this vast sea of divine action, only a tiny stream appears, and when this has reached Jesus, it is lost again in the Apostles and swallowed up in the Book of Revelation; so that the history of this divine action, consisting of the life of Jesus in the souls of the righteous to the very end of time, can only be perceived by faith alone.

As the truth of God has been made known by word, the love of God is made known by deeds. The Holy Spirit continues to carry on the work of our Savior. While helping the Church to preach the Gospel of Christ, He himself is writing His own Gospel on the hearts of the faithful. All their actions, all the moments of their lives, make up the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. The souls of the saints are the paper, their sufferings and actions are the ink. The Holy Spirit by the pen of His actions, writes a living Gospel, but we can only read it when it has been taken out of the press of this life and published on the day of eternity.

Oh! wonderful story! What a glorious book the Holy Spirit is now writing! It is still on the press. There is never a day when the type is not being set, ink applied, and sheets printed. But we are still in the night of faith. The paper is blacker than the ink, and there is great confusion in the type. It is written in letters which belong to another world, and there is no understanding of it but in Heaven itself.

If we could perceive this life of God, and see all creatures, not as they are in themselves, but as instruments of His will, and if again, we could perceive His life in all His creatures and understand how His action animates and impels them all to press forward in different ways, mingling them, assembling them, scattering them, yet pushing them all to the same point by different means, we should recognize that everything in this divine work has its reason, its measure, its connection with God's overall work. But how can we read this book whose letters are foreign to us, whose type is reversed and whose pages are blotted with ink? If the blending of the twenty-six letters of our alphabet results in such incomprehensible diversity that they can be used to write an almost infinite number of different volumes, all admirable, who can explain what God is doing in the universe? Who can read and understand the meaning of so vast a book in which every single letter has its own particular significance and contains in its littleness the most profound mysteries? Mysteries can neither be seen nor felt. They are objects of faith. Faith alone judges their worth and truth only by their source, because they are so obscure in themselves that all their external appearances serve only to conceal them and mislead those who judge by reason alone.

Teach me, Divine Spirit, to read in this book of life. I desire to become Your disciple and, like a little child, to believe what I cannot understand and cannot see. It is enough for me that it is my Lord who speaks. He says this! He pronounces that! He arranges the letters in such a fashion! He makes Himself heard in such a manner! That is enough. I judge that all is exactly as He says. I do not see the reason, but He is the infallible truth; therefore all that He says, all that He does is true. He groups His letters to form a word, and different letters again to form another word. The word may have three letters, or it may have six. Then no more are necessary, and fewer would be nonsense. He alone who knows all the thoughts of men can bring these letters together to express it. Everything has significance, everything has a perfect meaning. This line purposely ends here. Not a comma is missing nor is there one useless period. I believe that now, but in the glory to come, when so many mysteries will be revealed, I shall see plainly what I understand so dimly.

Then what appears so complicated, so perplexing, so foolish, so inconsistent, so imaginary, will charm and delight me eternally with the beauty, order, knowledge, wisdom and the inconceivable wonders I shall find in it.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

22. Humility and Health (Mt 8:1-17)

2009-06-24T04:01:00.000-06:00

“I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of mine towards souls of sinners. Let the sinner not be afraid to approach me. The flames of mercy are burning me – clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out upon these souls. Distrust on the part of souls is tearing at my insides.”

- Words of Jesus to St Faustina Kowalska

Matthew 8:1-17

After he had come down from the mountain large crowds followed him. A leper now came up and bowed low in front of him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And his leprosy was cured at once. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Mind you do not tell anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering prescribed by Moses, as evidence for them..

When he went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the subjects of the kingdom will be turned out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’ And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go back, then; you have believed, so let this be done for you’. And the servant was cured at that moment.

And going into Peter’s house Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: He took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us.

Christ the Lord

Jesus has power over sickness, one of the most visible results of the evil introduced into the world by original sin. These three miracles show that this power, which Christ wields in love, extends to every strata of sickness.

Leprosy was one of the most feared (and most frequently encountered) diseases in ancient times. This bacterial skin infection started small, almost imperceptibly, but it soon spread, rotting the victim’s extremities (fingers, nose, lips, etc.) and issuing a thoroughly repugnant odor. Lepers were excluded from society and left to die a slow, painful, humiliating death. The gradual but incurable descent into death was an eloquent symbol of sin’s effect on a person’s soul.

The Centurion’s servant suffered from some kind of paralysis, a sickness that went deeper than leprosy’s skin-deep infection. Peter’s mother-in-law suffered from a fever, a sickness that went deeper yet, its cause frequently unknown, often inciting the invalid to slip into delirium, or even to lose consciousness altogether.

Citizens of the third millennium, so familiar with advanced medicine, can still identify with the desperate feeling of helplessness in the face of illness that comes across so clearly in these encounters. And yet, Jesus cures them all. Not everyone is helpless in the face of evil, sickness, and impending death. The One who just finished teaching us the path to true happiness now proves that he isn’t helpless at all; rather, he is worthy of our trust – he is the Lord.

Christ the Teacher

The Centurion’s faith impresses Christ so much that it inspires him to give an impromptu sermon, a sermon with a sobering lesson. In order to take our seats at the Messianic banquet (the biblical image for heaven – a huge banquet, a massive wedding reception), we must have faith in Jesus Christ, a faith as vibrant as the Centurion’s. But the Centurion only came to such a strong faith by traveling the uncomfortable path of humility – a path that those who are more familiar with Christ (the Centurion was a foreigner, remember, not part of the Jewish family) often try to bypass.

The Centurion was stationed in Galilee and obviously had become familiar with Jewish doctrine – that the Israelites were a people chosen by the one, true God, and that the Gentiles would receive salvation only through them, not because the Gentiles deserved it, but solely because of God’s mercy. He was in charge of a division of 100 soldiers, an officer in the world’s most powerful army, and a Roman ruler of a conquered people – yet in spite of so many reasons to be arrogant, he says to this poor carpenter from Nazareth: “I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.” No wonder Christ was amazed.

The leper expressed this same humility and faith. He approached Jesus, did him homage, and then simply laid his need at Jesus’ feet: “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

Entrance into Christ’s Kingdom passes through one door only, that of humble faith in Jesus Christ. Without stooping to admit our need for God, and our basic unworthiness to receive his grace, we simply can’t make it across the threshold.

Christ the Friend

Lepers were forced by Jewish law to live completely separate from the rest of the community, primarily because of the highly contagious nature of the disease, but also because leprosy was commonly viewed to be a punishment inflicted by God for some hidden sin. They weren’t allowed to come within 100 yards of healthy people. And yet, this leper approached Jesus; he came right up to him. There must have been something about Christ that inspired confidence.

The leper sensed that Jesus would not be repulsed by his disgusting disease. And he was right. Jesus not only smiled and healed him, but he reached out and touched him – not for publicity’s sake (he urged the man to keep the miracle under wraps), but just to be close to him. Jesus wants to be close to us, to “take our sicknesses away” by walking by our side. He touches the mother-in-law’s hand; he offers to come to the Centurion’s house – the heart of Christ is the heart of a faithful, close, unconditional Friend.

Christ in My Life

Sometimes I wish I could see your miracles firsthand. But many saw them and still didn’t believe. I believe in you. I don’t need to see any miracles. You have given me so much and shown me so much. One sunset is enough for me, Lord. You are goodness itself and the source of all that is good. I want to follow you, through sickness or health, and I want to help many others to follow you too…

Lord, at times I wish you would simply resolve all my problems right away. But in your wisdom you don’t. You know how necessary it is for me to learn how much I need you. Humility is so hard for me! How much peace there must be in a humble soul! You were humble, Lord; all that mattered to you was doing the Father’s will. Make me like you; Thy will be done…

You know all my hidden sins and infirmities. And yet you still reach out to touch me. This love dazzles and disorients me. Thank you, Jesus. Lord Jesus, strengthen and enlighten my heart that is so weak and dark…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

To learn more, or purchase “The Better Part - A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer,” click HERE.

- Finding a spiritual director - watch out for confused sheep...

2009-06-23T04:00:00.003-06:00

Foundational to any sound "spiritual direction" is the idea that there actually is a tangible direction to discover. That is, the practice presumes that spiritual truth is an expression ofobjective reality - just as objective and real as a map of your own hometown. For instance, if you asked someone to give you directions to the Cathedral and you ended up at the town dump, you would clearly know that something was amiss. The Cathedral and the dump can't be the same thing at the same time. Those of you who have a rational basis for your thinking are shaking your head right now saying, "Of course - who in their right mind would disagree with this?"

Unfortunately, there are many in the Church, in positions of authority, in religious orders, who would disagree with this kind of thinking. No, they wouldn't disagree with the way that I just stated it, but they do see the world in terms that will, spiritually speaking, confuse things as diverse as a Cathedral and a place of rotting spiritual refuse.

A great example of this sad confusion surfaced in a conversation I had today with someone who was taking classes with a religious order to become a "spiritual director." In one of her recent classes the nuns brought in a Buddhist, a Natural Spiritist, and a number of other non-Christian representatives to share their spiritual insights. The goal was to understand that, as she said, "we are all Children of God" and that "we can learn a great deal from the spiritual lives of those who come out of these other religions."

I was a bit dumbfounded even though I am accustomed to this particular convent spreading dissent and confusion. What struck me was how readily this "spiritual direction" trainee had accepted what they presented to her. A number of scripture verses began to swirl in the back of my head as I cordially smiled and listened... "I am the way, the truth,the life, no one comes to the Father but through me." (John 14:6) "All who came before me are thieves and bandits but the sheep did not listen to them." (John 10:8) By the way, Jesus is talking here about one of the groups that presented their "spirituality" via the nuns. Another verse came to mind, "My sheep hear my voice, I know them, they follow me." (John 10:27) I wondered if she had ever read or pondered any of these passages. With deep incredulity, I wondered why someone would look outside of the endless depth and riches of their own faith, the One true Faith, the pinnacle of all that is good and true, into the spiritual wastelands of those who reject Christ both directly and indirectly. Even looking at the good of what is available in some of these religions, it is something like being diverted away from the most lavish banquet ever served in the history of time to a garbage can in the back of a greasy dive. Yes, something in there will be semi-edible, but why would anyone who had a seat reserved for them at this great feast ever choose to eat this way?

This scenario points out the tip of the iceberg regarding a few serious issues facing those seeking sound spiritual direction. Here are a few ways to avoid taking direction from a lost sheep who claims to be a spiritual director:

1) Don't settle for the garbage bin when you have a seat reserved for you at the feast of the King of Kings! The great spiritual Doctors of the Catholic Church provide unfathomable wisdom and depth that cannot be plumbed in any one lifetime by any one person. If you are seeking spiritual direction, ask your would-be director where they get their inspiration and training. If it is outside of the person of Christ and the tradition of His Church and the Doctors of the Church, you are about to be led into a spiritual garbage dump.

2) Don't settle for the first answer to your question and don't be ashamed to dig a little. After all, you are seeking truth and guidance into a deeper relationship with Christ. There is no greater aspiration in this life, nothing more worthy of careful consideration. A great second question to determine if a director can lead you to the true banquet of Christ is to ask them their position on Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Humane Vitae. If you get anything but unequivocal and strong support for this controversial but clear teaching of the church - you are headed for a spiritual garbage can.

3) Finally, don't settle for pseudo-spirituality in the form of New Age Catholicism. Ask them about "centering prayer." If they enthusiastically smile and point to a method whereby you can quickly achieve contemplative union (a sacred word, a specific posture and breathing technique, etc.), you are headed for a very confusing journey into a rotting carcass of spiritual darkness.

Unfortunately, finding a sound spiritual director instead of a confused sheep can be difficult. Don't give up, don't stop praying, and don't settle for anything but a place at the table where you belong, with the King of Kings.

In Christ, Dan

Abandonment XIII - God Revealed in Ordinary Circumstances

2009-06-18T08:12:00.003-06:00

The written word of God is full of mystery. His word expressed in the events of the world is not less so. These are two sealed books, and of both it can be said, "the letter killeth."

God is the center of faith. All that emanates from this center is hidden in the deepest mystery. This word and these events are, so to speak, feeble rays from a sun obscured by clouds. It is vain to expect to see with our mortal eyes the rays of this sun. Even the eyes of our soul are blind to God and His works. Obscurity here reigns rather than clear light; knowledge itself is ignorance, and we see without seeing. The Holy Scripture is the mysterious Word of an even more mysterious God. And the events of the world are the obscure language of this same hidden and inscrutable God. They are mere drops of the ocean, but an ocean of shadows. Every drop of the stream, ever brook of water partakes of the nature of their source. The fall of the angels, the fall of man, the impiety and idolatry of men before and after the flood up to the time of the Patriarchs, who knew and told their children the history of Creation and of its still-recent preservation from the universal flood - these are indeed very obscure words of Holy Scripture! That when the Messiah came only a handful of men should be preserved from idolatry in the general ruin and overthrow of faith throughout the world; that evil is always dominant, always powerful; that the little band of those who uphold the truth should always be persecuted and ill treated, seems incredible! Consider the treatment of Jesus Christ. Think of the plagues of the Book of Revelation - yet these are the words of God. They are what He revealed. It is what He has dictated. And the effect of these terrible mysteries, which endure until the end of time, are still the living word, teaching us His wisdom, His power, His goodness. All the events in the history of the world show forth these divine attributes and preach the same adorable Word. We must believe it, for alas! we cannot see it.

What is God saying by the existence of infidels, heretics and all the other enemies of the Church? Surely they point to the infinite perfections of God. Pharoah and all the evil men who followed him are allowed to exist only for that purpose, though truly, unless we behold them with the eye of faith, the end of all these would seem most contrary to the divine glory. We must close our eyes to what is external and cease to reason in order to see the divine mysteries.

You speak, Lord, to humankind in general in great public events. All revolutions are but the waves of the sea of Your Providence, which stir up storms and tempests in the minds of those who question Your mysterious actions. You speak also to each individual soul by the circumstances occurring at every moment. But instead of receiving what is obscure and mysterious in these Your words, and hearing Your voice in all the occurrences of life, they see only the outward aspect, or chance, or the caprice of others, and they find fault in everything. They would like to add to, diminish, reform - in fact, they allow themselves absolute liberty with these living words of God, while they would consider it a sacrilege to alter a comma of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures they revere: "They are the Word of God," they tell you. "They are true and holy. If we cannot understand them, that makes them all the more wonderful and we must give glory to God for the depth of His wisdom."

All this is perfectly true, dear souls, but when you read God's word from moment to moment, not written with ink on paper, but on your soul with suffering and all the daily actions you have to perform, do these words not deserve some attention on your part? How is it that you cannot see the will of God in all this? Instead, you find fault with everything that happens, nothing pleases you. Do you not see that you are measuring everything by the senses and by reason, not by faith, the only true standard. And since you read the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures with the eye of faith, you gravely err when you read this same word in His other operations with any other eyes.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

- What does it mean to have a "personal relationship" with Christ?

2009-06-15T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: Father John, what does it mean to have a "personal relationship with Christ?" I pray regularly (rosary, Liturgy of the Hours, etc) and go to mass regularly, however, I don't know that "personal relationship" would describe my understanding and experience of God. Am I missing something?

A: Maybe, but maybe not. Let’s start answering your question with a question: When you “pray and go to Mass regularly,” why do you do it? Take a moment to answer that question for yourself before you continue reading… Why do you carve time out of your busy schedule to pray and worship God the Father through Jesus Christ in union with the Holy Spirit? Most likely, your personal answer fits into one of the following three generic answers.

Falling into Routine

First, we can pray and worship out of routine. It’s like punching our spiritual time-clock. We have always gone to Mass and always prayed, ever since we were kids, and we feel a kind of comfortable inertia in continuing to do so. We have a vague sense that one ought to do such things, and we have a vague sense that if I fail to do them we will feel guilty for some reason, and we don’t want to add an uncomfortable guilty feeling to our already over-stressed emotional world. So we keep going through the motions of being a Catholic. Just as it would strike an American citizen as somehow incongruent not to celebrate the Fourth of July, it strikes a cultural Catholic as somehow incongruent not to engage in some basic spiritual practices. If you “say your prayers” just because doing so has become part of your internal comfort zone, you may have fallen into what theologians call spiritual routine.

When I was in eighth grade I remember sleeping over at a friend’s house. As we went down to the basement to go to bed, his parents were sitting on the couch watching television, the wife cuddling against the husband, who had his arm around her. They looked like a happy couple. Two months later they were divorced. I asked me friend how they could be so happy together, and then get divorced. My friend told me that they just kept up appearances for the kids’ sake, but there was no love in it. That’s falling into routine.

Fright School

Second, we can pray and worship out of fear. This can be akin to superstition. We have the idea in our heads that if we stop going to Mass, praying the Rosary, or making our morning offering, God will become angry, punish us, make our lives miserable, and maybe even send us to Hell. In this case, our spiritual commitments (prayer and worship) are like paying taxes to a tyrant, or being extorted by a strong-man: if we pay our dues, the Boss won’t bother us.

In ancient pagan religions, proper worship depended on following formulae perfectly. A priest had to offer an elaborate ceremony with perfect execution, or the god would not be pleased and it would go to waste. If during the ceremony the priest sneezed, for example, he would have to start all over again. In this religious vision, people are not children of a loving Father, but slaves of angry, fickle, and aloof deities.

Connected by Conviction

Third, we can pray and worship out of conviction. The word “conviction” comes from the same word that gives us “convinced.” Religious conviction is an internal state of assurance with regard to religious truth. The primary reason a convinced Christian prays and worships is because they sincerely believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Creator and Redeemer, and that he deserves our praise and we need his grace. If our spiritual life flows from conviction, then the actual activity we engage in during our times of prayer is conscious: we pay attention to the meaning of the words, we search the Scriptures for wisdom and guidance, we lift our hearts to God in thanksgiving and adoration, and we strive to conform how we live to what we discover in prayer – to what God wants for us (God’s will). In this case, our faith actually connects our mind and heart to God during our prayer. We are not just going through motions, and we are just paying our dues; we are actually encountering the God who speaks to his beloved children through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Bible Reminds Us

Praying and worshipping mainly out of conviction (as opposed to routine or fear), is what it means to have a “personal relationship with Christ.” On the one hand, we know that he knows us and is interested in our life (“I no longer call you slaves… I have called you friends… It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go out and bear fruit…” (John 15: 15-16). Or, as St Paul put it, “I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). And on the other hand, we put forth our own effort to follow his example and teaching, as a way to stay close to him, accept his invitation to become a disciple, and participate in his great project of building up the Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…” (Jon 14:15). Christianity is about knowing, loving, and following a person, Jesus Christ. The essence of our religion is a personal relationship of faith, hope, and love.

The Pope Hits the Nail on the Head

As Pope Benedict XVI put it in his inaugural homily: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance… There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him… If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation” (Pope Benedict XVI, 24 April 2005).

Of course, we are all on our way to spiritual perfection, and so sometimes we fall into routine – at least, on the surface of our minds we can fall into routine; our conviction still exists, but it’s submerged under distraction or anxiety. That prayer is still valuable, and still pleasing to God – the remote motivation is right on target. But the more we can keep our convictions fresh, strong, and vibrant, the better. Likewise, I may find myself crawling out of bed on Sunday to get ready for Mass just because I know that missing Mass is a mortal sin, and I really don’t want to go to Hell. Some Christian faith and conviction is still present even in that slavish motivation. God can work with that. Yet, the more we understand what Mass really is, the more we will see obeying the precept to attend Mass as a joy, a relief, a mysterious encounter with eternity, and an opportunity to please God and build up his Kingdom. When we pray and worship out of conviction, we connect better with Christ, and his grace has more room to work in our souls.

Having a “personal relationship with Christ” doesn’t mean regularly having visions of him sitting on the easy chair in the living room or hearing him give us directions while we’re looking for the right exit off the Interstate. Rather, it simply means gradually learning to live our Christianity more and more from heart to Heart.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

We have been nominated! Please help by casting your vote!

2009-06-12T04:00:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends,

You may have noticed the icon to the left indicating that we are a nominee for a Catholic New Media award! I just found this out last night by “chance” in a forum on another site. The category is “Most Spiritual Blog.” This is great news for our ability to spread authentic Catholic/Christ-Centered Spirituality for those seeking to move deeper in their faith. THE CHALLENGE IS THAT THE VOTING ENDS SHORTLY! Could you give us a hand by casting your vote? Either click on the icon or go to the link below to register and vote.

http://www.catholicnewmediaawards.com

After you register, just look for the Most Spiritual Blog category and find "Catholic Spiritual Direction" and cast your vote!

Thanks for all your help and support. Also – this might be a great time to forward this blog on to a friend who may be looking for answers or to go deeper in their faith.

Thanks again and God bless.

In Christ,

Dan

Abandonment XII - Finding the Will of God

2009-06-11T04:00:00.000-06:00

If we are able to greet each passing moment as the manifestation of the will of God, we will find in it all our heart can desire. What could there be more reasonable, more perfect, more divine than the will of God? Could any change of time or place or circumstance alter or increase its infinite value? If you possess the secret of discovering it at every moment and in everything, then you possess all that is most precious and worthy to be desired. What is it that you seek, you who desire to become holy? Give full scope to your longings. Your wishes need have no measure, no limit. However much you may desire, I can show you how to attain it, even though it be infinite. There is never a moment in which I cannot enable you to obtain all that you can desire.

The present moment is always filled with infinite treasure. It contains more than you have the capacity to hold. Faith is the measure of these treasures; according to your faith you will receive. Love also is the measure. The more the heart loves, the more it desires, and the more it desires, the more it will receive. The will of God is constantly before you like an immense, inexhaustible ocean that no human heart can fathom; but none can receive from it more than he has the capacity to contain. It is necessary to enlarge this capacity by faith, confidence, and love.

The whole universe cannot fill the human heart, for its capacity is greater than anything other than God. It is on a higher plane than the material creation, and for this reason, nothing material can satisfy it. The divine will is a deep sea, the surface of which is the present moment. If you plunge into this sea you will find it infinitely more vast than your desires. Offer no homage to creatures; do not adore your own illusions. They can neither give you anything nor deprive you of anything. Receive your fulness from the will of God alone, and it will not leave you empty. Adore it, put it first, before all things. Tear all disguises from vain pretenses and forsake them all going straight to the sole reality. The reign of faith is death to the senses; it is their spoilation, their destruction. The senses worship the physical. Faith adores God's divine will. Destroy the idols of the senses and they will weep and rebel, but faith must triumph, because the will of God cannot be separated from it. When the senses are terrified, famished, despoiled or crushed, then it is that faith is enriched and nourished. Faith laughs at these calamities as the commander of an impregnable fortress mocks at the useless attacks of an impotent foe.

When we recognize the will of God and surrender entirely to it, then God gives Himself to us and we experience the most powerful assistance in all difficulties. Thus we enjoy great happiness in this coming of God, and the more we learn to surrender ourselves to His all-adorable will at every moment, the more joy we have.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

20. Imaging God's Goodness (Mt 7:7-14)

2009-06-10T04:00:00.000-06:00

"Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me as I seek, because I can neither seek you if you do not teach me how, nor find you unless you reveal yourself."

- St Anselm

Mathew 7:7-14

'Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. Is there a man among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.'

Christ the Lord

Because we are wounded by sin, we are continually tempted to perceive God in a distorted way. Every person we encounter in this fallen world, even a truly loving parent or an exceptionally devoted spouse, is flawed. No one is exempt from selfish, hurtful tantrums or ignorant, erroneous points of view. These encounters sometimes damage our own attitudes and emotions, making us suspicious and self-protective. Trust becomes hard. Self-sufficiency becomes more comfortable - both in our relationships with other people, and also in our relationship with God. How much of a hold the world can have on us!

Even so, we still experience flashes of goodness and generosity - more frequently the more closely we follow Christ. These small triumphs of virtue resonate in our soul, because our souls were created for that. In this passage, Jesus latches on to this limited but real experience of goodness (for example, the image of a father giving good gifts to his children) to help correct our suspicious perception of God. God is perfect goodness-goodness without the slightest shadow of selfishness, weakness, or fault. He is eager goodness, ready and waiting to give us what we most need. Our Lord is like an overflowing, rushing river of pure goodness. How he longs for us to dive in and allow him to refresh our souls!

Christ the Teacher

Jesus presents us with another apparent contradiction. He says that the entire law and the prophets (all of God's revelation about how to life a fulfilling life) can be summed up in the simple command to do to others whatever we would have them do to us. Then, in the very next sentence, he tells us that the path to this fulfilling life is narrow and hard and that few people actually find it. Why is loving your neighbor as yourself so easy to say and yet so hard to do?

We have to go back to original sin to resolve the paradox. The human family was created in the image and likeness of God. But God is a community of Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, the human person is created for community, created to achieve fulfillment through coming to know and be known by others, through coming to love and be loved by them. When our first parents, influenced by the devil, freely decided to rebel against their Creator, the harmony with which their relationship was originally endowed disintegrated. Adam was alienated from Eve, Eve from Adam, and the human family no longer reflected the image of God. Instead, it began reflecting the image of the rebel against God (the devil) whom they had obeyed rather than God.

The human vocation is to love and to be loved, because the life of God in whose likeness we are made is love. That's why the law and the prophets (again, God's revelation about how to lead a fulfilling life) can be summed up so easily: treat others as another self, give them the same unconditional acceptance you give yourself, seek what is good for them just as you seek what is good for yourself; this is how we image God. But sin attacked that image of God within us, and so what should be most natural for us has become most burdensome - it is a difficult path and a narrow gate.

Christ the Friend

Friendship cannot be forced, not even friendship with God. Since Christ wants us to relate to him as friends, not as zombies, he refuses to force us to follow him. He lets us seek happiness in the world's many empty wells and false promises, if we so choose. And yet, he wants us to look for it in him. Imagine how eagerly and energetically he pronounced this threefold command: "Ask! Seek! Knock!" It's as if he is pleading for us to turn to him, to let him be our guide and coach and Savior and friend. It's all his heart wants. Why do so many refuse the invitation?

Christ in My Life

Certain things always remind me of your goodness: the beauties of nature, the crucifix, the love of my family... How many there are! Right now I want to contemplate them, to remember them... Strengthen my conviction, Lord, that you are the perfect Father who loves me even more than I love myself. Always remind me of your goodness, so I will never, ever walk away from you...

I believe in you, Lord, and so I believe you when you say that the meaning of life and the quality of my discipleship corresponds to the way I treat my neighbor in thought, word, and deed. And isn't that how you lived? Your whole life was one continuous act of self-giving that reached its climax on the cross. Teach me to give my whole self to you. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart more like yours...

Whenever I have really asked/sought/knocked, you have always rewarded me with a new experience of your goodness. Why don't I ask more? Is it because I think I can give meaning and fruitfulness to my life all by myself? That is foolish, I know. But I am a fool, Lord. I need your wisdom and grace to transform me...

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

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How do I get rid of my "inner ugliness?"

2009-06-08T04:00:00.001-06:00

Q: Fr John, I have been struggling with some interior trials with forgiveness, resentment and jealousy. I call this "inner ugliness." I have been praying fervently, going to confession, and receiving excellent spiritual direction. I have been willing myself to be charitable even when I am not feeling it. So here is my question. What am I missing, why do I still feel "inner ugly"? How do I let go of all of this?

A: OK, brace yourself for this really blunt answer: You still feel "inner ugly" because you still are "inner ugly" - at least partially. Let's be blunt again: It's obvious from your question that you feel frustration at the stubborn persistence of some of your faults, in spite of your efforts to extricate them. Where does that frustration come from? Does it come from God? Is God frustrated with you because you aren't perfect yet? Is he up in heaven tapping his watch and raising his eyebrows? Not a chance. Let me tell you, as a Catholic priest, that he is OVERJOYED with the fact that you have followed his nudges and made your way through the wilderness of our secular society onto the one path of holiness. Yes, you are on the path of holiness; you are on the "steep road" and passing through the "narrow gate" (Matthew 7:13) that lead to salvation, wisdom, Christian joy, everlasting fruitfulness, and eternal beauty. He has been trying to convince you to get onto that path for a while, most likely. Now you are there, and you are traveling it, and you are following the road signs (prayer, confession, spiritual direction... Heck, you're in the fast lane!), and he is delighted!

So, if your frustration doesn't come from God, where does it come from? I am sure you have already guessed it: your pride. You want God to go at your pace, but God is not always going to go at your pace. He knows better; he is going to go at his pace, and we (all of us) need to learn to follow that pace. If not, we will never grow in humility, the bedrock of all holiness and true happiness.

Baking School

Imagine: You are teaching your teenage daughter how to make an angel-food cake. First you make one together, and she really just watches and assists you a tiny bit. So then she gets really excited about it, and she wants to do one all by herself. She is so excited that she tells you, "Mom, you go running or something; I want to do this myself." So you go running. And you come back to find her huddled over a rather floppy, lopsided, misshapen, and gooey culinary mutant. She is either crying or fuming. She is an impatient girl and wants to do everything perfectly right away, but the reality is that some things can't be rushed. If she were a bit humbler and more patient, she either wouldn't have tried to do it all on her own so soon, or she would have had more of a sense of humor over her delicious dessert disaster.

Transitioning the Garden

Here's another analogy. Think of your soul as a large garden. You haven't always been attentive to taking care of the whole garden. In fact, there were parts you didn't even know you had, sections with amazing potential. So now the Lord has shown you the potential of your garden, and together with him you have rolled up your sleeves and gotten to work to make your garden into what it should be. There are various phases to this work. First, you have to repair the broken fences, cracked fountains, and disheveled walkways. Then you have to extract the weeds that have been growing freely for a while (maybe for a long while), so that the good plants (the ones already there and the ones you want to plant) have room to grow. Then you have to dig up the soil, aerate it, water it, fertilize it. Then you have to keep tending the good plants (protecting them from rabbits, deer, birds, etc.), repair things that get broken during storms, keep weeding, etc.

That's the process. It's long and hard, but it's what matters most, because the flowers and fruits that come from our spiritual gardening are the ones that matter most: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22). That's the opposite of the "inner ugly" that you are striving for.

Right now, you are working hard, sweating, and doing all the right things. But you are discovering that the weeds had deeper roots than you thought. You are discovering that the broken fences are taking much longer to mend that you anticipated. You are finding out that the soil is extremely dry and alkaline in certain areas and needs a lot of deep digging. You like the look of the new plants, but they are still so little, while some of the older, ugly weeds are still big. So you see the fresh inner beauty, but you also see the stubborn inner ugly, maybe even more clearly (more realistically) than before.

Letting God Be God

God can speed up the process whenever he wants (and in some aspects, he probably already has, whether or not you realize it). But when he doesn't, he has his reasons. We can only make a decent effort to do our part (what more could he expect from us?). God's part is up to him. If he is going at a pace that makes us uncomfortable, we need to trust his wisdom. The worst thing to do would be to let your frustration get the better of you and give up. The best thing to do, being the little and beloved daughter of God that you are, is to wipe the sweat from your brow, smile, and keeping following his lead: "But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance" (Luke 8:15). He has guided you faithfully so far, and he won't lead you astray now. And remember, the frustration doesn't come from him - he is DELIGHTED with you!

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Abandonment XI - Recognizing God's Hand by Faith

2009-06-04T04:00:00.000-06:00

Those who are enlightened by faith judge things in a very different way from those who have only their senses to guide them and ignore the inestimable treasures they conceal. He who knows the king in disguise treats him very differently than another who, judging by appearances alone, fails to recognize his royalty and treats him as a commoner. In the same way the soul that recognizes the will of God in even the smallest circumstances, even in those that are most distressing and fatal, receives them all with equal joy, pleasure, and respect. It throws open all its doors to receive with honor what others fear and fly from in horror. The outward appearance may be mean and contemptible, but beneath this abject garb, the heart discovers and honors the majesty of the King. The more this majesty abases itself, to visit the soul in this secret and modest way, the more love for Him fills the heart.

I cannot describe what the heart feels when it accepts the divine will in such humble, poor, and mean disguises. Ah! how the sight of God, poor and humble and lodged in a stable lying on straw, weeping and trembling, pierced the loving heart of Mary! Ask the inhabitants of Bethlehem what they thought of the Child. You know what answer they gave, and how they would have paid court to Him if He had been lodged in a palace surrounded by the honor due to princes.

Then ask Mary, Joseph, the Magi and the Shepherds. They will tell you that they found in this extreme poverty an unexplainable something which made God greater and more lovable. Faith is strengthened, increased and enriched by those very things that escape our senses: the less there is to see, the more there is to believe. To adore Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, to love the will of God in extraordinary things, does not show as much faith as loving the will of God in ordinary things and adoring Jesus on the Cross. For faith cannot be said to be real living faith until it is tried, and has triumphed over everything that would destroy it. This war with the senses enables faith to win a more glorious victory. To consider God equally good in the most petty and ordinary events as in great and unusual ones, is to have a faith that is not ordinary, but is itself great and extraordinary.

To be satisfied with the present moment is to delight in, and to adore God's will in all that comes to us to do or suffer through the succession of events each passing moment brings. Those who have this disposition adore God with redoubled love and respect, even in the greatest humiliation. Nothing hides Him from the piercing eye of faith. The louder the senses exclaim, "This cannot be from God!" the closer they press this bundle of myrrh from the hand of the Bridegroom. Nothing daunts them; nothing repels them.

Mary remained steadfast at the foot of the cross when the disciples fled. She recognized her Son in that Face, spat upon and bruised, covered with mud and spittle. The wounds that disfigured Him only made Him more lovable and adorable in the eyes of this tender Mother. The more awful were the blasphemies uttered against Him, so much the deeper became her veneration.

In the same way, the life of faith is nothing less than the continued pursuit of God through all that disguises, disfigures, destroys, and, so to speak, annihilates Him. It is in very truth a reproduction of the life of Mary, who, from the Stable to Calvary remained unalterably united to that God whom the world despised, persecuted and abandoned. Just so, faithful souls, despite a constant succession of trials, veils of darkness and illusive appearances which make His will difficult to recognize, persistently follow Him and love Him even to the death of the cross. They know that, heedless of all disguises, they must run after the light of this divine Sun. From its rising to its setting, however dark or thick the clouds may be that hide it, this Sun enlightens, warms, and inflames the faithful hearts that bless, praise, and contemplate Him at every point of His mysterious journey across their sky.

Hasten, then, happy faithful, untiring souls, to this beloved Spouse, who with giant strides passes from one end of the heavens to the other! Nothing will be able to hide Him from you. He moves above the smallest blade of grass as above the mighty cedar. The grains of sand are under His feet no less than the huge mountains. Wherever your foot may rest, He has passed, and you have only to follow Him faithfully to find Him wherever you may go.

Oh, what a delightful peace we enjoy when we have learned by faith to find God through all His creatures as through a transparent veil. Then darkness becomes light and bitterness becomes sweet. Faith, showing us things they are, transforms their ugliness into beauty, their malice into goodness. Faith is the mother of gentleness, confidence and joy. It cannot help feeling tenderness and compassion for its enemies, by whose means it is so immeasurably enriched. The more malignant the action of the creature, the more profitable God makes it to the soul. While the human instrument seeks to injure us, the divine Workman does His work, making us of its very malice to remove from the soul all that is injurious to it.

The will of God has nothing but sweetness, grace, and treasures, for the surrendered soul. It is impossible to place too much confidence in it, or to surrender oneself to it too utterly. It always acts for, and desires that which contributes most to our perfection, provided we allow it to act. Faith does not doubt. The more unfaithful, uncertain, and rebellious are the senses, the louder faith cries, "All is well! It is the will of God!" There is nothing that the eye of faith does not penetrate, nothing that the power of faith does not overcome. It passes through the thick darkness, and, no matter what clouds may gather, it goes straight to the truth, grasps it in firm embrace, and never lets it go.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender

19. A CRITICAL EYE (MT 7:1-6)

2009-06-03T04:00:00.000-06:00

"Today we must translate the words of Scripture into deeds, and instead of speaking saintly words, we must act them."

- St Jerome

Matthew 7:1-5
‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, Let me take the splinter out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye. Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls in front of pigs, or they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.'

CHRIST THE LORD

Jesus rules his Kingdom through charity, through self-forgetful love. In profiling how his disciples ought to think of and treat one another, Jesus gives us a glimpse of his leadership style. Christ has nothing stuck in his eye. He sees clearly all the sins, faults, and offenses of his subjects. And yet, he doesn't condemn them. He constantly holds out his forgiveness, invites them to start fresh, helps them along the way, and hopes in their capacity for reform. He who could judge with perfect justice has mercifully delayed the judgment.

How self-contradicting we become when we rail against the delay! By condemning our brothers and sisters in thought and word, whether or not they deserve the condemnation, we despise the very mercy from which we have benefited so greatly. In thus separating ourselves from Christ's standard instead of seconding his patience, we end up exposing ourselves as well to the sharp sword of justice: God has no choice but to measure us with the measure we have used to judge others, because we have scorned the only other measure - his mercy.

CHRIST THE TEACHER

Jesus seems to contradict himself. On the one hand, he commands his disciples not to judge others, while on the other hand, he commands them precisely to judge whether someone is worthy to be given the pearl of the gospel (in the early Church, this pearl, this "what is holy" was understood primarily as the sacrament of the Eucharist, which was - and still is - reserved to those who share completely the Catholic faith). The concept of discernment resolves the paradox: Christ is teaching his disciples to be men and women of reflection and discernment.

The Greek verb used for "judge" connotes "to judge harshly and condemn," not merely to form an opinion (how can we avoid forming opinions?). Therefore, Jesus is really warning his disciples against thinking and speaking badly of others. Since only God can see the heart, only God can pass sentence on someone's moral conduct. Certainly an objective action can be identified as good or bad, in accordance or not with the gospel and the natural law, but only God can see into the conscience of the culprit - we are blinded to this level of reality by the beam of ignorance and self-centeredness. Think of it this way: how easy it is for us to make excuses for our own faults and failings, yet how quickly we condemn the failings of others. Jesus is simply teaching us to be as generous in our thoughts and words about other people (family members, friends, superiors, strangers, celebrities, politicians, etc.) as we are with ourselves.

At the same time, Jesus calls for prudence. It is naïve to pretend that everyone is a saint (though it is true that everyone is called to be a saint). We are to avoid thoughtlessly exposing our lives, our faith, and the Church's patrimony to the destructive malice of the enemies of Christ. You pray for and work to reform a criminal, but you don't hire him as your babysitter. If we are to love the sinner yet hate the sin, we have to be honest about both.

CHRIST THE FRIEND

Following Christ's standard of mercy, the standard by which he deals with us, involves forming the habit of reflection. Each of us has natural tendencies, some to be harsh and judgmental and others to be perhaps too trusting and unsuspecting. The mature Christian learns to balance these natural tendencies by taking time to reflect before speaking and acting, and by constantly examining his own conduct in the light of Christ's wisdom.

Jesus: How I long to give you my love and wisdom! Yet I can only do so if you are open to receive them. Strive to love as I love. The more your heart is open to your neighbors, the more my grace and love will be able to flow into your soul. Think well of others, excuse their faults, speak kindly and generously about them, and you will see your heart expand. Then I will be able to pour into your soul the light and truth that will set you free.

CHRIST IN MY LIFE

Lord, why is it so easy for me to fall into the trap of useless criticism? In some circumstances and relationships especially I am always seeing faults and failings, and condemning them as if I were the perfect one. Jesus, have mercy on me. Be more merciful with me than I am with my neighbors. Give me the strength to be humble, to judge as you judge, with the light of your love...

Thank you for your unquenchable mercy. You are merciful because you are all-loving and all-powerful. Mercy is the strength of your love. Lord, I believe in you! I believe in your love! I believe in the power of your love to enliven the deadest hearts, just as you have enlivened mine. I want to be a walking advertisement for your goodness and mercy. Speak to me, Lord, and speak through me...

Lord, when I take time to reflect on your words and your example, I feel my heart engaged. I want so much to follow your path! It is time for me to change, Lord. Teach me to turn these good desires you have given me into actions. Teach me to be an effective ambassador of your Kingdom...

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Fallen away family member - what can I do?

2009-06-01T04:00:00.000-06:00

Q: Father John, how can I convince family members who have fallen away from the faith to come back to God and the Church?

A: You can't. Only God can do that. But you can help. Here are some thoughts about how.

There is more going on in this question than meets the eye. Almost every believer faces a question like this at some point in their journey. It can take different forms. Some of my priest colleagues have been ordained for years, and their parents are still estranged from the Church. Some extremely faithful Catholics are still stuck in sibling feuds that seem to have no end in sight. One faith-filled, dedicated, and extremely intelligent grandmother I know was devastated when her very well-educated son refused to have his first child baptized. Her first reaction was, "What did I do wrong?" Her second reaction was to beg God to change her son's heart. She prayed and prayed, for years. When she died (recently), her grandchildren were still un-baptized and her own soul was in torment because of it. Was it her fault that her prayer wasn't answered? Should she have done something different? Did she not pray enough?... Questions like these can assault us ferociously. We need to know how to deal with them.

The Issue at Stake

The issue has to do with intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is praying for others, interceding for them. Examples of this kind of prayer are found throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Moses interceded for the people of Israel after their reversion to idolatry (the golden calf incident, cf. Exodus 32). Many of Christ's miracles are performed in response to people interceding with him on behalf of someone they love who is suffering (e.g. raising Jairus's daughter from the dead, Luke 8). The long tradition of the Church encourages us to pray for others, to "Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people..." as St Paul puts it (Ephesians 6:18). This may seem obvious, but it isn't. Some modern schools of spirituality discourage this type of prayer, as if it were an immature, materialistic way to relate to God. Not all. God has revealed himself as Father, and we are very needy children. When we bring our needs and those of our loved ones to him in prayer, we are exercising our confidence in him, our Christian love, our hope, and our faith - these are the core virtues of our Christian adventure. God is pleased when we intercede for others in prayer.

That's the background; now let's get down to brass tacks. Three key elements go into healthy intercessory prayer.

The Starting Line?

First, it has to begin from an awareness of God's goodness, faithfulness, and omnipotence. This is expressed in the first place by praying for things that are in harmony with God's will. It would be an insult to God to ask him to send someone to hell, for example, since he wills the salvation of all people. This awareness is also expressed in the one of our prayer: we should pray with confidence. Jesus put it succinctly: "I tell you, therefore, everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours." The Old Testament offers beautiful examples of this aspect of prayer. When Judith and Esther are interceding for Israel in the midst of national crises, they spend the first half of their prayer calling to mind all the wonderful things God has done for Israel in the past. They are stirring up their confidence in him, tuning into God's wavelength.

The Mysterious Core

Second, intercessory prayer should be offered with complete trust in his wisdom. In other words, we have to realize that although God always answers our prayers, he doesn't always answer them as we want him to. He may say no. He may say not yet. He may say yes. The Irish have a phrase that they tack onto expressions of hope and desire: "...please God." We should tack this onto our intercessory prayers. "Lord, if it be pleasing to you, bring my father back to the sacraments..." When we are asking God to intervene in someone's life, we are touching an awesome mystery. God never violates human freedom. And so, when he moves hearts, he does so in a way that we cannot fathom. We have to remember this as we approach him with our needs and petitions; otherwise we end up becoming dictatorial and presumptuous.

The Sign of Authenticity

Third, we have to back up our prayer with our life. This has two levels. First, there is the level of our own Christian journey. The closer we are following Christ, the more powerful our prayer: "The heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully" (James 5:16). If we are failing to make a decent effort to fulfill God's will in our own lives, our prayer that God's will might be done in someone else's life will be hampered by spiritual dissonance. Second, there is the level of our collaboration in achieving the very thing we are asking God to bring about. If we are praying for the conversion of a family member, for example, we should always ask ourselves what we can do to give Providence more room to work. This collaboration may take the form of talking to the person we are praying for, trying to give them reasons to come closer to the Church. It may also take less direct forms, like finding ways to help them in their life's struggles, to serve them with sincerity and kindness, as Christ would have us. We should always ask ourselves if there is a "next step" we can take. It is possible to overdo it on this score - to end up badgering someone instead of encouraging them. We have to ask God for light and just do our best, trusting that God will put it to good use.

A Final Conundrum

But let's say we are have been praying for a particular intention for a long time, with all three elements more or less in place. How long is long enough? Does continuing to pray for the same intention show a lack of confidence in God, a refusal to take "no" for an answer? How can we know when we should move on and leave it in God's hands?

No hard and fast rules can guide use here. Jesus commanded us to be persistent in our prayer (cf. the parable of the unjust judge, Luke 18). St. Monica prayed incessantly for ten years before her son, St. Augustine, returned from his prodigal peregrinations. Yet sometimes, we wonder if we just need to move on. Here the wisdom of the Church comes to our aid. If a particular intention is weighing heavily on our heart, we can presume that God wants us to pray for it. And we can do that in many ways. For example, we can have a Mass or series of Masses offered for it, or offer a special novena for that intention, or receive Holy Communion on nine First Fridays and pray for it, or make a pilgrimage for it... We Catholics have a treasure-trove of devotions and traditional pious practices that we can dip into in order to give some kind of objective parameters to our intercessory prayer. At the end of the novena, we can leave the intention in God's hands, confident that our prayers have been heard. Or, if the intention still weighs heavily on our heart, we can continue to pray for it. The Holy Spirit will guide us, giving us his interior peace as we faithfully follow his lead.

In the end, however, we cannot control other people's freedom, not even through our prayer. If we find ourselves refusing to accept that simple fact, we need to take a healthy dose of humility and let God be God.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

"Offering it Up" - Redemptive Suffering Part II - The Path to Greater Merit

2009-05-25T04:00:00.000-06:00

Q: Father John, I was just listening to a radio show about redemptive suffering - they were saying that our suffering can have value if we "offer it up." Is there any more to this (uniting our sufferings to Jesus') than just saying the words?

A: Having marveled at the amazing truth that Jesus not only redeemed us, but through his grace has desired to give us a real, consequential role in the building up of his everlasting Kingdom through merit, now we are ready to tackle your question. If we are in the state of grace, our prayers, virtuous actions, and even our sufferings can become a source of merit. When we unite them to Christ (“offering them up” as you put it in the question), they become pipelines of grace extending from the heart of Christ into our hearts and through us into the Church and the world around us. That said, we also must remember that the diameter of the pipeline is not fixed. It depends upon four factors. Growth in spiritual maturity depends to a great extent on the interior discipline required in living out these four factors.

First, there is the amount of sanctifying grace present in my soul. The more I am filled with grace, the more merit my prayers, virtuous actions, and sufferings will have when I offer them to God. The more grace I am infused with, the higher the wattage on the lamp of my soul. This is because grace is what makes us more like God, more united to him. A kind word from a stranger can be pleasant, but a kind word from someone dear to me is much more meaningful. The Christian who prays regularly, receives the sacraments regularly, and makes an effort to practice all the Christian virtues, rooting out sinful tendencies and avoiding sin, is more united to God. They are in a better position to merit. As the Bible puts it, “The Lord keeps his distance from the wicked, but he listens to the prayers of the upright” (Proverbs 15:29). And lest you think this is just an Old Testament anachronism, here’s St. James making the same point in the New Testament: “…The heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully” (James 5:16). What goes for prayers goes also for virtuous actions and sufferings.

United to the Vine

Second, there is our union with Jesus. This is closely related to the first factor, but it is less formal and more relational. It’s a question of being aware of our union with Christ. We are members of his mystical body, and so he is always with us. The more conscious we are of this union, the more meritorious all of our actions become. When we are working on a project with another person, the beneficial synergy happens more fully and dramatically if we are in constant contact with that person along the whole process. Our project as Christians is to build up Christ’s Kingdom in our hearts and in the world around us. If we try to do the work on our own and then check in with the Lord at the end of the day, that’s good. But it’s much better if we work side-by-side with him throughout every phase of the project. This is the spiritual discipline of living in the presence of God, and it turns even the most mundane tasks into meaningful encounters with God. If I am habitually living and working aware of Christ’s presence in my heart, then saying the words “Lord, I offer this up to you” resonates deeply in my soul, opening up a wider flow of God’s grace (merit) through that offering. St. Paul encouraged the Christians of Colossae to practice this spiritual discipline: “…Whatever you say or do, let it be in the name of the Lord Jesus, in thanksgiving to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).

To Want or Not to Want…

Third, there is our purity of intention. We can “offer up” our sufferings, using them to gain merit, for many different reasons: because we don’t want to go to hell; because we want more glory in heaven; because we want our sufferings to win graces for others who are in need; because we want to show God that we love him no matter what, even if he permits suffering in our lives; because we want to conform our lives more perfectly to Christ… The same variety of reasons can be present in our prayers and virtuous actions. We can obey because we don’t want to be punished, or because we recognize that the virtue of obedience is pleasing to God and glorifies his wisdom; we can exhaust ourselves to earn a decent living because we are afraid of being labeled a failure, or because we recognize that God has given us a mission to provide for a family and thereby be a mirror of the Father’s goodness… The default setting for our interior intention is usually self-centered. But with God’s help and constant effort on our part, we can make it more and more mission-centered, Kingdom-centered, Christ-centered. Of course, usually we have more than one intention, e.g. we work for the satisfaction of a job well done, but also to benefit the world around us and to make a living, and also to glorify God. Multiple intentions are natural and normal – human beings are complex creatures. But the more we can consciously renew our supernatural intention, stirring up the reasons for doing things that are based on the wisdom of our faith, the bigger pipeline of grace we can become. This factor applies even to the littlest things we do, as St Paul makes clear: “Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Going from Cold to Hot

Fourth, there is the factor of fervor. You can have 20 kids in a math class, and every single one of them can be working on an exercise. But not every single one of them will be putting their whole heart into it. You can have 15 kids at baseball practice, but not all 15 will be giving their all for the whole two hours. Just so, we can all say the words, “Lord, I offer this up to you,” but we will not all say them with equal fervor; the more meaning we pour into them, the more merit we can acquire. When sufferings come our way, for example, we can accept them with different degrees of fervor: reluctance, patience, gratitude, joy. As long as we accept them out of faith, we will merit – we will help increase the flow of grace in the Church. But if we accept them with a greater degree of faith (e.g. “Lord, you are giving me a chance to unite myself more closely to Christ on the cross – OK, Lord, help me to share his love as I share his pain!...”), there will also be a greater degree of merit. Jesus stressed this factor when he identified the most important commandment: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). He said all. The implication is that we can love with different degrees of totality.

Sanctifying grace, union with Jesus, purity of intention, and fervor are four factors that help determine the degree of merit that our prayers, virtuous actions, and sufferings (sacrifices) can win for ourselves, the Church, and the world around us. So, to answer the original question, there is much more to uniting our sufferings to Christ than simply saying the words, though that is the necessary catalyst.

I hope this hasn’t discouraged you by giving the impression that the spiritual life is overly complicated. It really isn’t. In fact, knowing that one simple action (a prayer, a headache, an act of service, an honest word, a chore) can either open up a trickle or a torrent of grace is a jewel of wisdom. It should fill us with optimism and enthusiasm. We don’t have to convert nations or face lions in the Coliseum to do something glorious for God! Nor do we have to learn complex yoga techniques in order to develop spiritual maturity – we just have to dig deep into our soul before, during, and after our normal activities, and activate our faith so as to plug them into our Christian mission of building Christ’s Kingdom. (By the way, the easiest way to do that is to grow in the habit of “praying at all times” [1 Thessalonians 5:17]. When we do that, the four factors kick in and intensify automatically.) This is less glamorous than becoming a martial arts expert, because it is largely interior and invisible (to everyone except you and God), and therefore requires more discipline. As St Paul put it, we “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

But the good news is, as always, that we are not alone. God, Mary, the angels and the saints are all eager to help us, if we just give them the chance.

Yours in Christ, Fr John Bartunek, LC

Dryness in Prayer - Part III - God's Part in the Struggle

2009-05-18T04:00:00.000-06:00

Q: Father John, I have been praying (mental prayer) for a long time. But lately I seem to be experiencing dryness in my prayer - I just don't seem to get as much out of it as I used to. Is this the "dark night of the soul"? If not, what's going on, and what should I do?

Lack of consolation in prayer (also known as dryness) may be a result of un-confessed and un-repented sin, or it may come from sloppiness or laziness in our effort to pray. But if we are making a reasonable effort to do our part, and yet we still don't experience (or stop experiencing) consolation, it's probably God's fault, not ours.

God is not a vending machine; he doesn't have to reveal himself to us in a tangible way every time we try to press his buttons. This is one of the big differences between Christianity and many other religions. In pagan religions, for example, the gods were obliged to respond to worshippers in a certain way, if the worshipper performed a specific ritual, likewise in Satan worship. But Christ isn't like that. We can't control him. He can hold us back from feeling his presence in our souls, even when we are sincerely and conscientiously doing our part.

Why? Why would he allow us to experience dryness in prayer? Because he wants our love for him to mature. At times, we can become subtly attached to our experience of God in prayer - to the consolations that we feel as we gaze upon his beauty or taste his goodness. Subconsciously, we can begin to seek those consolations even more than their source. We begin to value the gifts of God more than the God who gives them, like the little child who enjoys Uncle Ernie's company because Uncle Ernie always gives out candy. Candy is a good sign of Uncle Ernie's goodness and love for a child, but getting to know Uncle Ernie better and developing a more mature relationship with him means learning to go beyond the gum-drops.

When God withholds consolations, he is purifying us of this subtle attachment to our feelings, so that our faith can grow and mature. To become mature Christians, we must learn more and more to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). In this context of spiritual growth, dryness in prayer is an opportunity to truly adore God himself, regardless of personal preferences and satisfactions. The mature love is the love that "lays down its life for the beloved" (John 15:13), not the love that "has no root deep down and does not last, should some trial come..." (Mark 4:17). Dryness is an invitation to give ourselves to God, putting aside our desire to get things from him.

Doing Our Part Amid Dryness

When God sends us this kind of purification, our reaction should be like a patient on an operating table. We must not try to avoid the often painful dryness, nor panic in the midst of it. Rather, we should persevere in our good efforts, trusting that the wise doctor of our souls is hard at work in ways that we cannot see or feel, healing us of spiritual cancers that we may not even know we have. (St Ignatius of Loyola used to advise keeping to the exact minute of the time reserved to meditation whether we experience immense consolation or immense desolation.) This is what spiritual writers call "passive purification." Active purification is when we consciously deny our natural inclinations in order to follow Christ more closely (see our blog posts on mortification). Passive purification is when God puts us into the fire in order to burn away impurities that are beyond our reach. The result is marvelous: purified silver is more fully itself after being put through the fire; we become more fully what God made us to be after he purifies us. But the process is often painful.

When this dryness occurs for long periods of time on the level of emotions or imagination, it is sometimes referred as the "dark night of the senses." The "dark night" is an image that St. John of the Cross used to sum up the whole phenomenon of dryness and passive purification. When this dryness occurs for long periods of time on the level of intellect and will (see part I of these posts on dryness in prayer for an explanation of these different faculties), it is sometimes referred to as the "dark night of the soul," since these two faculties are the superior, spiritual faculties of the human soul.

St. John of the Cross went into great detail about the signs by which authentic dark nights can be distinguished from dryness that comes from other sources. In summary, they are as follows: 1) we find no consolation in the things of God, but neither do we find any in the things of the world; 2) we find ourselves still attending very carefully to our prayer commitments, and our anxiety comes because we fear we are not serving him well; 3) we find ourselves unable (at least for unusually long periods of time) to make reflections and considerations when we go to mental prayer, as if our minds were somehow paralyzed. In these three areas, however, it is difficult for us to diagnose ourselves; it's like trying to look at our backs in a mirror.

Two Tangents

Two more observations are needed before leaving this topic. First, those who are taking their spiritual lives seriously and striving to grow in prayer can sometimes be distracted by trying to figure out exactly where they are in the various stages of spiritual growth. It's as if they think that having the perfect label will make their efforts more fruitful and helpful. This can be a pitfall. Because we are all individuals, and God leads us through unique paths of spiritual growth, it is not always easy to fit our real experience perfectly into the abstract categories that theology has to use to reflect systematically on these issues. We can become obsessed with finding the right label, instead of staying focused on loving God through prayer and action in obedience to his will. It is helpful to understand more and more the principles in the spiritual life, because then we can understand ourselves better as we begin to identify how those principles are at work in our experience. Yet, spiritual naval-gazing is unhelpful. This is one reason why spiritual direction is such a useful tool. It helps keeps us objective and balanced in our efforts to discern how God is acting in our lives.

Second, those Christians who are living out their vocation to holiness as lay men and women often receive their purification in ways other than the "dark nights" of the senses and the soul. The suffering and the struggles for fidelity to Christ that come with the vocation to marriage can be acute. The suffering and struggles that come in one's effort to build Christ's Kingdom through work, community, and professional activities can also be acute. God can use those struggles and that suffering to perform his purification-operations. He is not limited to using dryness in prayer. This is one more reason why we should be wary of spiritual naval-gazing. The key to spiritual growth is accepting, embracing, and fulfilling God's will moment by moment, not anticipating how God will work in us and then forcing him to follow our expectations. We must let the Doctor do his work, without demanding that he first teach us the whole science of medicine.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

"Offering it Up" - Redemptive Suffering Part I - The Mystery of Merit

2009-05-11T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: I was just listening to a radio show about redemptive suffering - they were saying that our suffering can have value if we "offer it up." Is there any more to this (uniting our sufferings to Jesus') than just saying the words?

A: Before getting to the heart of this question, we have to peek at the presupposition. It has to do with a theological concept called merit.

Part I: The Mystery of Merit

Merit is the right to a reward. Someone who gains merit deserves a reward from others; they have earned something of value through their own efforts; someone else owes them a recompense as a result of what they have done. A worker merits his wages; a football player whose performance launches his team to victory merits recognition as the most valuable player; soldiers who risk their lives for their country merit respect, and also social security when their time of active duty is up.

Jesus spoke often about merit. In his Sermon on the Mount he encourages us to look forward to the reward that will be great in heaven. In his parables about the final judgment he draws a direct correlation between how we behave here on earth and the reward that we will receive in eternity. Our modern sensibilities, influenced by a Kantian worldview, are disturbed by the thought of doing what is right in order to receive a reward. Jesus had no such qualms: "Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it" (Luke 12:33).

In short, as Christians, our prayers, actions, and sacrifices serve as conduits, in a sense, of God's grace. And it is God's grace that redeems fallen humanity, rolls back the forces of evil, enlightens sin-darkened hearts, restores hope to those in despair, fills us with joy, wisdom, and strength... God's Kingdom flourishes, in individuals, families, parishes, and societies, when the flow of grace is abundant. To increase our merits is to do our part to increase the flow of God's grace in, through, and around us.

Problem and Solution

Now for the tricky part. On our own, we are absolutely incapable of obtaining supernatural merits. This is because we are fallen, sinful human beings. An unplugged lamp won't give off any light, no matter how many times you turn the switch. Similarly, original sin unplugged our souls from the source of grace - God himself. When Jesus became man and offered himself in atonement for our sins, he plugged human nature back in to God, so to speak. This was the redemption. And so, anyone who is united to Christ through faith and the sacraments is now once again connected to the source of grace - they are living in the state of grace. Only in Christ, then, can we merit: "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

But that's the amazing thing: in Christ, we can merit. God has consciously chosen to give us the possibility of making a difference in his Kingdom. We are not just along for the ride. What we do and how we choose to live our ordinary lives can actually increase the flow of grace in the world, spreading Christ's Kingdom and storing up treasure for us in heaven. Jesus has not only saved us from damnation, but he has given us the possibility of becoming active, meritorious collaborators in the work of redemption. Not because we deserve it, but simply because he generously wanted to give us that possibility: he wanted our lives to have real meaning, our actions and decisions to have eternal repercussions. His love makes us friends and collaborators, not just his robots or spiritual trophies.

Though it may seem obvious, we should mention that no one can merit the initial grace of conversion for themselves. The unplugged lamp can't plug itself in, though once plugged it really is the lamp that shines. A misunderstanding of this point helped fuel the fire of dissention that sparked so many painful divisions among Christians at the time of the Protestant Reformation. We cannot save or redeem ourselves; we need a Savior, a Redeemer: Christ. But on the other hand, once we have accepted Christ's gift of grace, that very gift enables us to merit other graces for ourselves and for the Church. This is a marvelous, wonderful, and underemphasized part of the Good News!

Now we are ready to tackle the question of whether it is enough just to "say the words" in order to win merit by uniting our sufferings to Christ. We'll look at that next time.

Yours in Christ, Fr John Bartunek, LC

- The Fulfillment of all Desire - Book Recommendation

2009-05-05T04:00:00.002-06:00

The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

By Ralph Martin

This tremendous book discusses the spiritual journey that results from serious spiritual progress through what is termed the Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive Ways, ultimately ending with the Beatific Vision. This journey, unique and different for all, contains broad similarities as we seek the Lord, and is masterfully described by seven "Spiritual Doctors” of the Church: Sts Augustine, Catherine of Siena, Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisiuex, John of the Cross, and, Francis De Sales. This book is written for both those who are beginning the spiritual journey, as well as for those who have been on the journey for many years. Some of the best Catholic thought on the topic of spiritual growth is contained in this encouraging book.

In Christ, Brian

To support this site, you can learn more or purchase the book by clicking HERE.

Dryness in Prayer - Part II - Our Part in the Struggle

2009-05-04T04:00:00.001-06:00

Q: Father John, I have been praying (mental prayer) for a long time. But lately I seem to be experiencing dryness in my prayer - I just don’t seem to get as much out of it as I used to. Is this the “dark night of the soul”? If not, what’s going on, and what should I do?

Part II

Dryness in prayer is the contrary of consolation (the sense of satisfaction that God gives our emotions, imagination, intellect and will when we encounter his truth, goodness, and beauty). Dryness is the absence or lessening of those consolations, either every once in awhile, or for long periods of time. And the Catechism identifies dryness as one of the key obstacles in prayer. But we won’t be able to understand how to deal with the obstacle unless we understand, at least a little bit, what causes it.

Dryness in prayer surfaces for one of two reasons: because of us, or because of God. Let’s start with the first reason.

When the Going Gets Tough

When we aren’t making a reasonable effort to do our part in the quest of prayer, dryness happens because of us. At times in the spiritual life, especially (but not only) at the beginning, God sends frequent and intense consolation to our souls. It is like a courtship, and he is courting us. He sends us flowers, gives us candy, takes us out on beautiful dates (in the spiritual sense). He is trying to convince us of his goodness, wisdom, and power. He is trying to win us over. As our relationship deepens, we realize that following God involves not just getting good gifts from him, but giving him the gift of ourselves. This we do through obeying his commandments and his will, through following his example, growing in virtue, building up the Church, loving our neighbor… All these things, since they are based on our desire to grow in our friendship with the One who is calling us, takes an effort on our part. We have to freely choose to respond to God’s action in our lives; it’s not automatic (if it were automatic, it wouldn’t be a relationship of love, or friendship).

As this journey continues, we sometimes grow weary. We begin to hanker after the “onions of Egypt,” as the Israelites did during their sojourn in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. We long for an easier life, for the pleasures of self-indulgence, for the seductive comforts and passing gratifications that thirty pieces of silver can purchase for us. Moments like these are crucial for spiritual growth. They give us a chance to mature our love for God, to grow up a little bit more. But the tug of our fallen nature, egged on by the glitter of popular culture and the twittering of the devil on our interior homepage, is strong.

Getting Sloppy

One reaction that we can have in these times is to begin simply going through the motions in our prayer life. On the surface, we are continuing with the same prayer commitments that we have always kept, commitments that have the blessing of our spiritual director. And yet, we start fulfilling them in a routine way, not making a concerted effort to concentrate on our vocal prayers, for instance, or not carefully following the method of our mental prayer. We get careless. We don’t prepare the material for our meditation ahead of time. We don’t guard our interior silence during the day. We cut off a couple of minutes now and then from our meditation, or toy with involuntary distractions instead of putting forth the necessary effort to deflect them… Sometimes this diminishing effort is extremely subtle, even subconscious. Sometimes it is glaringly obvious: we are avoiding looking into God’s eyes because of an un-repented and un-confessed sin (dishonesty, infidelity, impurity, disordered ambition, willful consent to self-righteous anger or envy…). Whether subtle or flagrant, slacking off in our reasonable efforts to pay attention to God when we pray will often inhibit us from hearing his voice. Not always, because God can make himself heard even when we’re not listening, but almost always.

Sidestepping Along

When our inbox is overly cluttered, we lose motivation to roll up our sleeves and get to work, so we procrastinate or look for busy-work to distract ourselves. This inhibits us from experiencing the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, from meeting goals and following objective priorities. Likewise in the spiritual life. When we hit a steep section of the road as we’re following Christ, we can stray off to the side, take a rest, or even go looking for a shortcut, though we know very well that our Lord is standing on the upgrade beckoning us forward. Until we get back on track, we won’t be able to experience the consolation God has for us, because we won’t be meeting God (the source of consolation) where he is waiting to meet us.

Think of a gymnast who reaches a plateau in her training. Her coach knows that she needs to maintain the same effort that she was putting out while she was making visible, rapid progress. But she starts getting discouraged, precisely because her progress isn’t so rapid and visible at the moment. If she trusts her coach and perseveres, soon she will be beyond the plateau, achieving higher levels of excellence and experiencing the satisfaction that goes with it. The coach can encourage her, but in the end she has to decide if she will keep putting forth the effort, doing her part.

The First Question

So this is the first question we need to ask ourselves if we are experiencing dryness in prayer: Am I still doing my part? Or has some un-confessed sin or subtle self-pity - or just plain laziness (be humble) - drained my efforts? To find an objective answer to that question, it is often helpful to go over our prayer commitments with our spiritual director, to describe how we are praying the Rosary, the Mass, the meditation, the morning offering… It can also be useful to go over the basic guidelines of prayer again, e.g. reading The Fundamentals of Christian Meditation from the first section of The Better Part. (For your convenience, I have included a checklist below that can help remind you of what doing your part in the daily meditation entails.)

If you discover that, indeed, you have been slacking off a bit. Don’t be afraid! Bring it up in confession, and then make some small adjustments to your commitments that will help motivate you to get back in the swing. For example, change the book you are using to help you meditate, or the place of your morning prayer, or the time of day, or buy yourself a new Rosary… A fresh start can be sparked without these kinds of external tricks, but they can sometimes help.

If, on the other hand, after a calm and objective self-evaluation, you are convinced that you are still making a reasonable effort to do your part, then the dryness you are experiencing probably isn’t because of you, it’s probably because of God. Next time, we will talk about why God sometimes withholds his consolations. (By the way, I keep saying “reasonable effort” because that’s all God asks of us. Some people tend to think that if their effort isn’t perfect in every way, it isn’t reasonable. That’s not true. God knows we are not angels.)

…[from "The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer"]… On any given day, then, measuring whether your meditation went well or badly is not so easy. Your meditation may have been quite pleasing to God and full of grace for your soul even when it was unpleasant and difficult from a strictly emotional perspective. An athlete may have a great practice session even though it was painful and frustrating - likewise with a daily meditation.

The best we can do is to give some indicators below. The most important thing, though, is simply to keep striving to pray better. Speak about your prayer life in spiritual direction and confession, and trust that if you are sincerely doing all your best, the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

My meditation went badly when I…

Didn’t plan ahead regarding what material I would use, when and where I would meditate, turn off my cell phone, etc.
Simply gave in to the many distractions that vied for my attention
Let myself fall asleep
Skipped over the first step, Concentrate, or did it sloppily - how can my prayer go well if I am not keenly aware of God’s presence?
Didn’t humbly ask God to help me and to give me whatever graces I need to continue growing in my spiritual life
Spent the whole time reading, thinking or daydreaming, and didn’t stop to ask what God was saying to me and to respond from my heart
Tried to stir up fuzzy feelings and intense emotions instead of conversing heart-to-heart on the level of faith
Didn’t renew my commitment to Christ and his Kingdom at the end of the meditation
Shortened the time I had committed to without a really important reason

My meditation went well when I…

Actually fulfilled the commitment I have made to spend a certain amount of time in meditation every day
Faithfully followed the methodology in spite of tiredness, distractions, dryness, or any other difficulty, or if it was impossible to follow the four-step method, I did my best to give praise to God in whatever way I could throughout my meditation time
Stayed with the points of consideration that struck me most as long as I found material there for reflection and conversation
Was seeking only to know and love Christ better, so as to be able to follow him better
Made sure to speak to Christ from my heart about whatever I was meditating on (or whatever was most on my heart), even when it was hard to find the words
Was completely honest in my conversation - I didn’t say things to God just out of routine or because I wanted to impress him with my eloquence; I told him what was really in my heart
Made a sincere effort to listen to what God was saying to me throughout the time of prayer, seeking applications for my own life, circumstances, needs, and challenges
Finished the meditation more firmly convinced of God’s goodness and more firmly committed to doing my best to follow him faithfully

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Purchase “The Better Part” now at a 25% discount. Click here and use this code SPDIR409

I will exalt You - Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

2009-05-01T04:00:00.000-06:00

O Lord, what is it to me whether I feel or do not feel, whether I am in darkness or in light, whether I have joy or suffering, when I can be recollected in the light created in me by Your words? I feel a kind of shame in differentiating between such matters, and while I feel that I am still affected by them, I heartily despise myself for my want of love, but I quickly turn my gaze upon You, my divine Master, to be delivered by You... I will exalt You above Your sweetness and sensible consolations, for I am resolved to pass by all else in order to be united with You."

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Prayer of Saint Augustine for Those Struggling with Aridity

2009-04-28T04:00:00.001-06:00

"Lord, my God, You who are holy, look and see my affliction! Have pity on the child whom You have engendered in sorrow and do not consider my sins, lest you forget Your power over them. What father will not liberate his son? And what son has not been chastised by his father's compassionate rod? O Father and Lord, although I am a sinner, I am nonetheless Your child, because You have created and recreated me. Can a mother forget the fruit of her womb? If she should forget - You, Father, have promised to remember. Behold! I cry, and You do not hearken to me, I am torn with grief, and You do not console me. What shall I say, what shall I do, miserable creature that I am? Deprived of Your consolation, I am far away from Your sight.

O Lord Jesus, where are Your ancient mercies? Shall You be angry with me forever? Be appeased, I beg You and do not turn Your Face away from me... I confess that I have sinned, but I am certain that Your mercy surpasses all my offenses!

Weep, my soul, and complain, miserable one; groan because You have sent away Your Spouse, Jesus Christ, the All-powerful God; do not be angry with me, O Lord, for I could never withstand Your anger. Have pity on me so that I may not fall into despair. Although I am worthy of condemnation, do not withhold that which can save sinners.

I hope for much from Your bounty, O Lord, because You Yourself teach us to ask, to seek, and to knock; at Your word, I ask, I seek, I knock. O Lord, You who tell us to ask, grant that I may receive; You who tell us to seek, grant that I may find; You who teach us to knock at the door, open to the one who is knocking! I am weak; strengthen me. Bring me back, because I have wandered away, and revive me, because I am dead. According to Your good pleasure, direct and govern my senses, my thoughts, and my actions, that I may live by You and give myself entirely to You."

Saint Augustine

Dryness in Prayer - Part I - What is going on?

2009-04-27T04:00:00.001-06:00

Q: Father John, I have been praying (mental prayer) for a long time. But lately I seem to be experiencing dryness in my prayer - I just don't seem to get as much out of it as I used to. Is the "dark night of the soul"? If not, what's going on, and what should I do?

A: The Catechism (#2371) mentions dryness as one of the most common obstacles to prayer. But this is one of those terms that can be used in many different ways. It will take more than one post to answer your question, so let's begin at the beginning, with a definition.

When we say that we experience "dryness" in prayer, we usually mean that we don't sense God's presence, or we don't sense it as much as we think we should, or as much as we would like. We naturally expect that we will experience a certain level of consolation when we come into contact with God. This usually takes the form of positive emotions: when we meditate on Christ's mercy, we experience a feeling of relaxation in our soul, a release of tension, because we recognize once again that we don't have to earn God's love, and that we can't lose it; when we meditate on God's grandeur we are filled with the elation that flows from perceiving something beautiful - as if we were watching a dramatic sunset over the ocean; when we meditate on God's omnipotence, we feel a certain awe and security, a confidence that fills the soul with a sense of peace; when we meditate on Christ's tireless zeal for those in need, we feel a surge of vitality and a keen, sweet desire to do great things for the Church and lead others into friendship with Christ... These emotional responses to our encounter with God are intense and deep. They give us a sense of satisfaction that we don't find elsewhere, and in so doing, God hopes to draw us closer to him and increase our commitment to his Kingdom and his will.

But consolation can also come in other forms. It can be found in the imagination. At times, as we meditate on a scene from the Gospel, or as we gaze meditatively upon a crucifix or an icon, we can experience a kind of perfect harmony between the scene we are looking at and the attention of our mind. It's as if everything suddenly came into focus. It's as if our visual and imaginative capacities are suddenly in perfect synch with our understanding, which also just so happens to be in perfect synch with God's truth. This is similar to what athletes experience when they get "in the zone." We are free from distractions, our memory is perfectly in order, and during this consolation we ourselves and our whole personal world seem to be in high-definition harmony with the glance of God.

Consolation can also be experienced at the level of the intellect and will. The emotions and the imagination are more directly connected to our sense faculties (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) than the spiritual faculties of intellect and will. The intellect is what enables us to know true things in the abstract (dogs know their masters' commands, but they don't reflect on and write poems about them, as we do). The will is what enables us to choose good things freely (in a sense, squirrels may choose one nut over another, but it's only by instinct, whereas people can choose even to go against their instinct, as when the martyrs refuse to denounce Christ even under torture). When in our prayer these two faculties come into contact with God, who is Truth itself and Goodness itself, we experience an even deeper sense of satisfaction and fulfillment than we do through emotional and imaginative consolation.

These experiences of consolation (of the emotions, the imagination, and the spiritual faculties) are like whiffs of heaven. They draw us toward God and guide us along the steep and narrow path of Christ. When they diminish or disappear, we experience "dryness in prayer."

So much for definitions. Next time we will examine two possible causes of this dryness, and that will lead us into the last part of the answer, "What should I do?"

Yours in Christ, Fr John Bartunek, LC

Great News - "The Better Part" is available again!

2009-04-24T04:00:00.003-06:00

Many of you have really enjoyed the Wednesday posts of "The Better Part - A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer" but have not been able to purchase the book. Our recent poll shows that a good number of you own a copy and many others would like one. For those who don't have one, right now you can get one on Amazon for $104. I have a better idea! The publisher sent me a note that they now have the books in stock and offered our readers and friends a discount of 25% (retail is $35.95)! Use this offer code SPDIR409 and click here to purchase your very own copy. At checkout, enter the offer code to get the discount.

For our blogger friends and others who subscribe to the post feed, feel free to send this post along to anyone who might be interested Also, if you would be so kind, please forward this post and offer to your friends. If you don’t know how to forward this post, see these tips in the post, "How to Share This Blog..."

Who would benefit from The Better Part? Anyone with a desire to move deeper in his or her prayer life, and to know Christ in more profound way. I have never read a more helpful treatment of Meditation (the first part of the book), and the meditations (303 in all) are very insightful. I have also never encountered a book that has so many devout fans. Many use it daily for meditation (as it was designed) or for small study groups (there are guides at the end of each meditation for discussion).

God bless you as you seek Him and help others to do the same.

In Christ, Dan

- How do I deal with psychological issues surfaced in spiritual direction?

2009-04-20T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: Dear Father John, when a major issue (in this case, abuse) that surfaces with the help of my spiritual director bleeds over from the psychological realm into the spiritual, how (and when) do I get away from it in my spiritual direction so I can get to the spiritual issues of prayer, discernment, etc.?

A: It is difficult to answer this question, because the timing involved in any healing process like the kind you mention isn’t fixed. It depends on factors that are highly personal and often impossible to identify fully. Nevertheless, the question is an excellent one, so I will try to share some thoughts, hoping that you find them helpful.

First off, even from the few sentences you have written, it is abundantly clear to me that the Holy Spirit is very close to you, and that you have learned to hear and follow his promptings (those promptings are usually little more than a good idea that pops onto your internal radar screen). You are discovering, I think, that God is faithful, even when others are not. From God’s perspective, what matters most is that we come to know, love, and follow him more and more closely every day, so that we can enjoy him more fully in heaven forever. Because of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, he can make that happen even in the aftermath of evil. As St Augustine said, “For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.” But at the same time, as the Catechism reminds us, “Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life” (#324). I sense that you are learning this wisdom, that God is teaching it to you. As you continue to learn it, he will also give you chances and put you into situations where you can help others learn it too (get ready).

Now, onto the question: What will help you keep a balance in your spiritual work as the psycho-emotional healing process continues moving forward? I think the key factor in this period will be your program of life. This is what keeps us objective. It identifies our root sin, and also the concrete virtues that we personally most need to develop in our pursuit of holiness. In other words, it enables and empowers proactive spiritual work. This helps us move away from a primarily reactive or subjective spiritual environment. How can you (your personally, in the here-and-now of your unique life-situation) be more Christ-like in your relationships, in the carrying out of your responsibilities, in your efforts to build the Church? How can you (you personally) live the sacraments more deeply, learn to hear the Holy Spirit better and better in your contemplation and meditation on God’s Word? How can you (you personally) divide and conquer for Christ the territory of your heart... As you identify the areas of virtue where you need to grow, the emotional and psychological issues will begin to re-dimension themselves, and you will see them as obstacles and opportunities in your proactive spiritual effort (though depending on their intensity, you may need to get specific psychological help as well – nothing to be afraid of). And so you will be able to face them as you would face any obstacles and opportunities: in the bright and attractive light of God’s personal (to you specifically) call to holiness, lasting happiness, and Christian fruitfulness. The program of life is a tool that can help you make that happen, though it will take time to transition from reactive to proactive. Be patient. God’s grace will be the driving force.

If you are already using a program of life, go over it again, read over our blog entry on how to use it, and make a point of speaking with your spiritual director about polishing it up and turning it into a more practical and living document. Then use it as the blueprint for your spiritual direction, as well as the themes of your personal prayer. If you’re not using one yet, you have a treat in store! If possible, I would also recommend that you go on a trustworthy Spiritual Exercises retreat (this is usually the best place to get a grip on a really accurate program of life – but don’t wait until you can do that before getting your program of life going). Unfortunately, some silent retreats aren’t as gospel-centered as others. I know that my own order offers weekend Spiritual Exercises for lay people throughout the year, in a few different locations. You may be able to find information about them at www.regnumchristi.org.

I hope this is somewhat helpful, and I promise to remember you in my prayers during adoration tonight. God bless you!

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

- Is spiritual direction rooted in scripture or tradition?

2009-04-13T04:00:00.003-06:00

Q: Father John, is the idea of spiritual direction found in scripture? What is the basis for spiritual direction in scripture and/or tradition?

A: Do you remember when St Paul had his encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus? Taking a look at Paul’s own brief description of that happened will help us answer this question (Acts 22:6-10):

“It happened that I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when in the middle of the day a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ and he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ The people with me saw the light but did not hear the voice which spoke to me. I said, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do.’”

Paul’s question, “What am I to do, Lord?” is one of the most beautiful prayers in scripture. They are words we can repeat in our hearts all day long, every day, as we travel the journey of faith. But Jesus’ answer is rather puzzling. Jesus tells him to go into the city and wait for someone to come and tell him what to do. Why didn’t Jesus just tell him right then? Why didn’t Jesus give him another vision with a full list of instructions? We know from the rest of the scriptural narrative that God sent a Christian named Ananias to meet Paul, explain the Gospel to him, heal his blindness, and baptize him. Jesus didn't do all the work himself; he freely chose to work through others, to give his guidance through other human beings.

Do you remember the remarkable encounter between the Ethiopian Eunuch and the deacon Philipi in Acts chapter 8? The Eunuch had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, even though he wasn’t Jewish. He was a high-ranking official (chief treasurer, in fact) in Ethiopia’s royal court. His pilgrimage was over and he was on his way back south to his home country. Suddenly Philip was ordered by the Holy Spirit to catch up to the chariot. When he did, he heard the Eunuch reading the Jewish scriptures – some of the prophecies from Isaiah about the Messiah. (Back then written texts didn’t have punctuation or spaces between words, nor capital and lower case letters – everything was just crowded together on the page. So you had to read out loud in order to figure out, by the sound, the breaks between words and sentences. That’s why Philip “heard” the treasurer reading.) Philip asked the man if he understood what he was reading, and the man answered, wisely, “How could I, unless I have someone to guide me?” Why did the Holy Spirit send Philip to help this searching man find what he was looking for? Why didn’t the Holy Spirit just give him the answer directly?

We could go on and on with similar examples, from both the Old and the New Testaments. Joshua was spiritually tutored by Moses, Elisha by Elijah, David by Nathan, Paul by Barnabas, Timothy by Paul, Mark by Peter… God’s normal mode of operation is to guide and enlighten us by a combination of direct and indirect action; he stirs our souls and open our minds and gives us insights, but he helps us make sense out of them through the assistance of our fellow-travelers, especially those he has called and gifted to make that a primary apostolate.

During the fourth century at the beginning of the monastic movement, the institution of spiritual direction became more formalized. Young monks would receive instruction from older and more experienced monks as they pursued their vocation to perfection. This practice spread throughout Christendom quickly and even lay men and women eventually began to receive spiritual guidance from their confessors. In the years after the Protestant Reformation, the Jesuit order helped bring structure to the practice, and took on spiritual direction as one of their major apostolates. Subsequently, both older, and more recently formed orders have done the same. In the Church’s new ecclesial movements, lay men and women are also being trained in the art of spiritual direction, so that it is more common to see laypeople not only receiving, but also giving regular spiritual guidance.

Why does God choose to work in this way, both directly and also indirectly, through human instruments? Certainly we cannot fathom completely all of his reasons, but one of them is clear: God respects the human nature that he has given us. Because of that human nature, we are both material and spiritual beings, simultaneously matter and spirit. If God were to deal with us only through direct spiritual contact, he would be treating us like angels. But we are not angels. And so, to save us, he came up with the incarnation – reaching out to us by becoming one of us. And he invented the Church, a real institution with a hierarchical structure and sacraments that transmit grace, a spiritual reality, through matter, through material elements (messy and noisy matter too – as anyone who has been up close at a baptism can attest to).

This combination of direct and indirect action on God’s part is particularly clear in the case of the mystics. Jesus spoke directly to their souls, in an ongoing way, but they suffered immensely as they tried to discern how to respond to Jesus, until he gave them a specially anointed spiritual director or confessor. The Diary of St Faustina beautifully chronicles this kind of painful and confusing journey. How is it that he speaks to them directly, but they can’t find peace and confidence until he gives them a human guide as well? That’s our nature. God made it, God understands it, and God loves it. Blessed be God.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Personal News - My Oldest Received into the Church!

2009-04-12T14:00:00.002-06:00

Dear Friends,

Our oldest son was received into full communion with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church today! His conversion is the fruit of a great deal of prayer, healing, his own desire, and the clear working of God in his life. Please pray for Jordan (to be 18 next month) as he enters into his new life in Christ, that he would desire to give up his life in return for the great gift that God has given to him.

Alleluia!

Dan and Stephanie

By Your Glorious Resurrection – Saint Augustine

2009-04-12T04:00:00.001-06:00

“Lord Jesus, good and gentle Jesus, who deigned to die for our sins and to rise for our justification, I beg You, by Your glorious Resurrection, to bring me out of the sepulcher of my vices and sins, so that I may merit to have a real share in Your Resurrection. O most kind Lord, who ascended to Heaven in the triumph of Your glory and are seated at the right hand of the Father, You who are all powerful, raise me up to You, so that I may run in the odor of Your ointments, run without slackening, while You call and guide me. My soul thirsts; draw me to the divine spring of eternal satiety; lift me out of the abyss toward this living spring, so that I may drink as much as I can of it, and live on it forever, O my God, my Life.

I pray You, Lord, give my soul the wings of an eagle, that I may fly without weakening, fly, until I reach the splendor of Your glory. There, You will feed me on Your secrets at the table of heavenly citizens, in the place of Your Pasch, near the celestial fount of eternal satiety. Let my heart rest in You, my heart which resembles a great ocean agitated by tumultuous waves.

When shall I see You, O precious, long-desired, amiable Lord? When shall I appear before Your Face? When shall I be satiated with Your beauty? When will You take me out of this dark prison, that I may confess Your Name, without being confused any longer? What shall I do, a wretch loaded down with the chains of my human condition? What shall I do? As long as we are in the body, we are journeying toward the Lord. We have not here a lasting dwelling, but we seek a future city, for our homeland is heaven.

As long as I carry about with me these fragile members, give me the grace, O Lord, to cling to You, for he who adheres to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Saint Augustine

He was crucified, died, and was buried...

2009-04-09T04:00:00.001-06:00

The challenge with multi-media is that we watch without being drawn in. We are "a-mused" which means "without-thought." Don't watch this as amusement. Watch it when you have a free moment when you can reflect, pray and muse upon the work of Christ on your behalf. Two thousand years ago he was crucified - today he is crucified - for you...

What a marvelous exchange! – St. Bonaventure

2009-04-08T04:00:00.001-06:00

“O sweet Jesus, I understand what You must be feeling! O good Jesus, meek and loving! You suffered martyrdom by the many wounds caused by the scourging and the nails. You were crowned with thorns. How many, O good Jesus were they who struck You! Your Father struck You, since He did not spare You, but made You a victim for all of us. You struck Yourself when You offered Your soul to death, that soul which cannot be taken from You against Your will. The disciple who betrayed You with a Kiss struck you too. The Jews struck You with their hands and feet, and the Gentiles struck You with whips and pierced You with nails. Oh! How many people, how many humiliations, how many executioners!

And how many gave You over! The heavenly Father gave You for us, and You gave Yourself, as St. Paul joyfully says: ‘He loved me and delivered Himself up for me.’

What a marvelous exchange! The master delivers Himself for a slave, God for man, the Creator for the creature, the innocent One for the sinner. You put Yourself into the hands of the traitor, the faithless disciple. The traitor handed You over to the Jews. The wicked Jews delivered You to the Gentiles to be mocked, scourged, spit upon, and crucified. You had said these things; You had foretold them, and they came to pass. Then when all was accomplished, You were crucified and numbered among the wicked. But it was not enough that You were wounded. To the pain of Your wounds, they added other ignominies and, to slake Your burning thirst, they gave You wine mixed with myrrh and gall.

I weep for You, my King, my Lord, and Master, my Father and Brother, my beloved Jesus.”

Saint Bonaventure

Come weep with our God – St. Teresa of Jesus

2009-04-07T04:39:00.002-06:00

“O Lord of my soul, how quick we are to offend You! But how much quicker are You to forgive us! What am I saying Lord! ‘The sorrows of death have encompassed me.’ Alas! What a great evil is sin, since it could put God Himself to death with such terrible sufferings! And these same sufferings surround You today, O my Lord! Where can You go that You are not tortured? Men cover You with wounds in all Your members.

Christians, this is the hour to defend your King and to keep Him company in the profound isolation in which He finds Himself. How few, O Lord, are the servants who remain faithful to You!... The worst of it is that there are some who profess to be Your friends in public, but who sell You in secret. You can scarcely find one in whom You can trust. O my God, true Friend, how badly does he repay You who betrays You!

O true Christians, come to weep with your God! It was not only over Lazarus that He shed tears of compassion, but over all those who, in spite of His call, would never rise from the dead. At that time, my Love, You saw even the sins that I would commit against You. May they be at an end, and with them, those of all sinners. Grant that these dead may come to life. May Your voice, Lord be enough to give them life, even if they do not ask it of You. Lazarus did not ask You to bring him back to life, and yet You restored life to him at the prayer of a sinner. Here is another sinner, my God, and much more culpable than she was. Let, then, Your mercy shine forth! I ask it of You in spite of my wretchedness, for those who will not ask.”

St. Teresa of Jesus

St. Bonaventure - Meditation on Jesus Betrayal

2009-04-06T05:49:00.007-06:00

"Lord Jesus, when I meditate on Your Passion, the first thing that strikes me is the deceitfulness of the traitor. He was so full of the venom of bad faith that he actually betrayed You – You, his Master and Lord. He was inflamed with such greed that he sold his God for money, and in exchange for a few vile coins delivered up Your precious Blood. His ingratitude went so far that he persecuted even to death, Him who had raised him to the height of the apostolate…. O Jesus, how great was Your goodness toward this hard-hearted disciple! Although his wickedness was so great, I am much more impressed by Your gentleness and meekness, O Lamb of God! You have given me this meekness as a model. O Lord, the man whom You allowed to share Your most special confidences, the man who seemed to be so united to You, Your Apostle, Your friend, the man who ate Your bread, and who, at the Last Supper, tasted with You the sweet cup, and this man committed this monstrous crime against You, his Master! But in spite of all this, at the time of betrayal, You, O meek Lamb, did not refuse the kiss of that mouth so full of malice. You gave him everything, even as You gave to the other Apostles in order not to deprive him of anything that might melt the hardness of his evil heart."

St. Bonaventure

Spiritual Direction Topical Index - Updated

2009-04-04T17:12:00.001-06:00

To provide helpful organization and easier access to our Spiritual Direction posts, we have included a topical index below. The first section is for those who can and/or have found a spiritual director. Section two provides alternatives for those who are yet unable to find a spiritual director. It is important to note that the content in section two should be seen only as a temporary measure. Links appearing in both areas reflect that the posts are likely to provide value regardless of your situation. We will try to keep this index updated with each new post on the topic.

I. Moving Toward or Working Within Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction – what it is, and what it is not.

How do I find and select a spiritual director?
Concern about approaching a potential spiritual director...
Spiritual Direction Reading Plan

How should I prepare for a meeting with my spiritual director?

What is a Program of Life and why is it important to spiritual direction?

II. Alternative Temporary Means for Growth Outside of Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction Reading Plan

What if I cannot find a spiritual director? Can I direct myself?

O Sacred Head Surrounded - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

2009-04-03T04:00:00.001-06:00

O sacred head surrounded by crown of piercing thorn!

O bleeding head so wounded, reviled, and put to scorn!

The power of death comes o'r You, the glow of life decays.

Yet angel hosts adore You, and tremble as they gaze.

I see your strength and vigor, all fading in the strife,

And death with cruel rigor, bereaving you of life.

O agony and dying! O love to sinner's free!

Jesus, all grace supplying, O turn your face on me.

In this, your bitter passion, Good Shepherd, think of me,

With your most sweet compassion, unworthy though I be;

Beneath Your cross abiding, for ever would I rest,

In Your dear love confiding, and with your presence blest.

A Hellish Backup Plan

2009-03-31T04:00:00.002-06:00

Have you got a backup plan to avoid hell? Some believe they do. They believe that some day they will get around to the all-important task of developing their spiritual lives, but that if they don’t, they are willing and ready to endure the backup plan – purgatory. This sounds plausible on its face, but what if we miss the mark? Aiming for purgatory and missing can be a hellish mistake.

Can it be true? Is there a fiery safety net waiting to purge us of the sloth into which we may have slouched? I don’t know about you, but even if were true, this doesn’t sound too appealing to me. Can you imagine standing before God, having chosen not to pursue the holiness he calls us to? I wonder who would meet us in our final judgment. Would it be Jesus in his bloody crucified body? If it were, how confident would we be with our mediocrity in the face of all the suffering and love poured out on our behalf? Would we just shrug our shoulders, say, “sorry” and assume we could raise our pathetic hand and point to door number two (the purgatory door of course).

Would a just God allow such a choice? Lets look at it another way. If deliberately choosing to follow Christ down a clear and narrow path of holiness is not our choice in this life, will it suddenly be our choice in death? If Christ says, “take up your cross and follow me” and we shrug our shoulders and wander off, what choice have we really made - already?

So, is it this black and white? Here’s what Christ said to the Church at Laodice'a, in Revelation chapter 3:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent.”

And what was Christ's reply to a man who encountered him during his earthly ministry and indicated he had something very important to do before he could follow Christ to the cross?

“Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But he (Jesus) said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ (St. Luke chapter 9)

So, since the beginning, Christ called us to follow him. From the beginning, there were many who seemed to be willing but ultimately, had more important things to do. To these, Christ speaks in St. Matthew chapter 7:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few….Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire… Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.' Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

The key to understanding these passages is that all that are condemned here are “faithful,” “good,” “religious” people who are already "seeking" or "following" Christ! They all claim to know God, they are members of a parish, they claim Jesus as their “Lord.” Some have performed miracles in his name! What is the issue?!

It is simple really. The condemned are not pursuing him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They are holding on to corners of their soul where the cleansing of God is not welcome. They have left a marker on the narrow path thinking they can return at any time – maybe at the last moment? In the Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis said of this kind of thinking, “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven; if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.”

So what of the backup plan? As we have seen in a cursory review of a few passages, scripture is also clear – the trajectory of your life prior to your judgment will be the trajectory of your soul at your judgment – God will merely ratify the decision you have already made. “It is given unto man once to die, then comes judgment.” (Hebrews) In another passage in the Great Divorce, Lewis reiterates, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.”

There is no safety net here, not even a fiery one.

So, do you still think you have a backup plan to avoid hell? I have a better idea. Let’s follow Christ with reckless abandon. Let’s repent and be zealous for him. Let’s live life, “and that more abundantly” in Him. Then, when we come face to face with him, instead of “depart from me,” he will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master.” (St. Matthew 25)

Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him

In Christ, Dan

Vocal and Mental Prayer Part II

2009-03-30T04:00:00.000-06:00

Q: Father, I am still unclear about the difference between vocal and mental prayer? I keep trying to do mental prayer without words, but words keep coming. Am I doing something wrong?

A: As we have seen, the major distinction between vocal and mental prayer isn’t that one uses words and the other doesn’t, rather it comes from whose words are being used. When we use someone else’s words – a poem or a prayer composed by someone else, written down, and passed on, we are doing vocal prayer (even if we only recite it silently, in our heart). This can even be a hymn or a passage from the Bible. But when we enter into God’s presence in order to meditate on his goodness, listen to what he has to say to us, and then respond in the depths of our hearts with our own words, spontaneously, we are engaging in mental prayer. So you shouldn’t be worried that “words keep coming” – that’s great!

This question provides an opportunity for going a bit deeper into the importance of vocal prayer. We tend to think of mental prayer as more advanced than vocal prayer. But the Catechism is very clear about the need of both vocal and mental prayer for a mature life of prayer (see CCC 2700-2704). In fact, they often overlap. We don’t somehow grow out of vocal prayer – Pope John Paul II’s favorite prayer, for example, was the Rosary, even through the end of his life. In vocal prayer, we align our minds and hearts with the meaning (the intention, sentiment, desire, attitude…) of the words, whereas in mental prayer we formulate words to fit our felt meaning. Vocal prayer is valuable, then, for keeping the ideal of our Christian life fresh. Even accomplished opera singers need to sing basic scales and do fundamental voice exercises on a daily basis, so they don’t get sloppy and lazy. Vocal prayer helps keep us spiritually fit.

Two other points are worth mentioning.

We should always remember that prayer of any kind requires intentionality. We have to be aware of what we are doing, who we are speaking to, what we are saying or seeking. Just going through the motions is falling into the trap of routine, eloquently deplored by the prophet Jeremiah: “You [God] are always on their lips, but far from their hearts.” It takes significant self-discipline and ascetical effort to pray familiar prayers from our heart, to mean what we say, to savor the words and give them the value they deserve. Vocal prayer is not just for kids. I once heard about a Protestant visiting a Catholic Church. He was deeply impressed by his Catholic friend, who knelt down as he arrived to his pew, made the sign of the cross, and then stayed kneeling in silence for a full minute. Afterwards, the Protestant asked what his Catholic friend was praying for so solemnly. “Oh,” the Catholic answered, “I just kneel quietly and count to fifty – it’s how I used to keep the nuns off my back.” The Protestant was, sadly, confirmed in his erroneous conviction that Catholicism was all about empty ritualism, not a relationship with Christ.
When we draw the words for our vocal prayer from the Bible, God’s inspired Word, they have even more value. The late Vietnamese Cardinal Nguyen van Thuan spent 13 years in prison after the violently anti-Christian, communist regime occupied South Vietnam. Nine of those years were in solitary confinement. Some of his time was spent under house arrest, some was in re-education camps, some was in small, dark, and dank prison cells. He underwent physical and psychological torture as they tried to break down his faith. There were times when the only prayer he was able to utter was the slow repetition of a favorite phrase from the Gospel, “Father, forgive them… They have no wine… Jesus, you know everything, you know that I love you…” Here is how he later described his experience of this biblical-based vocal prayer: “I who am weak and mediocre, I love these short prayers... The more I repeat them, the more I am penetrated by them.”

That’s a testimony to the transforming power of vocal prayer.

Yours in Christ, Fr John Bartunek, LC

The Better Part - Available Soon!

2009-03-28T04:00:00.001-06:00

Friends,

A number of you have discovered that there is no way to find a copy of The Better Part at the moment. There is one used copy out on Amazon going for $150.00! The good news is that the good folks at Circle Press called to let us know that the books are on the way! As soon as they are available we will let you know. For those of you who are not aware, every Wednesday we post one of the 303 meditations from the book.

Pax Christi,

Dan

- Concern about approaching a potential spiritual director...

2009-03-27T04:00:00.004-06:00

Many of your comments and poll responses reveal that apprehension is a recurring obstacle to seeking spiritual direction. All those who desire but do not yet have a spiritual director are in the same position – one of vulnerability. The following is an overview of common struggles:

The area of our lives that is most important to us (our faith) is at a place where we obviously need help in order to grow. This can be a difficult and sensitive admission.
As committed Catholics, we typically hold priests in high esteem and struggle with the idea of encroaching on their already busy schedule.
We are concerned that the relationship with the potential spiritual director remain positive and healthy (particularly if he is our parish priest).
The process and nature of spiritual growth is an unknown. It is similar to heading into a fog – we know we should – but we don’t know what will come of our decision to continue forward.

All of these, and many other factors make us hesitant to pursue spiritual direction. So, the first question is one of motivation. Are you ready to suffer whatever discomfort you may feel for the greater end of finding peace of soul and living life according to your ultimate purpose? If your answer to this question is, “yes,” then half the battle is already over. Be encouraged – you are unique in this world. God is calling you to Him, and you are listening. The rest is mere practicality and perspective. Here are a few basic ways to overcome these inhibiting emotions:

1) Increase your knowledge and understanding of the spiritual direction process. Read the spiritual direction posts on this site and/or Father Dubay’s book and gain the vocabulary and perspective necessary to converse comfortably on the topic.

2) Recognize that the care of souls, as with spiritual direction, is central to the call of a priest. Any good priest will be encouraged to discover and work with a soul committed to follow Christ.

3) Approach the priest’s busy schedule with a practical respect. Here’s how:

Ask them for a 20 minute meeting to have a brief discussion about your spiritual life.
Prepare yourself for the meeting. Review the post “How should I prepare myself for a meeting with my spiritual director,” and do the work. Ensure that you limit your discussion to very specific goals or challenges you are facing.
Arrive before your scheduled time.
End your time on time. If you are clearly sensitive to their schedule, they will recognize that you value their time and will be more open to your next request. If you talk on and on and come in unprepared, be prepared for difficulty in getting follow-up meetings.
Write down and repeat back the direction you receive. This indicates that you are serious and are listening – a worthy investment of time.
If all seems to go well, as you wrap up your meeting, ask if you can follow up later if you have more questions or need further insight.
When you meet again, review what they advised you to do in the last meeting and update them on your progress, questions, difficulties, etc.
Offer a donation at the conclusion of the meeting.

With these tools in hand, your next step is to get on the phone. Call and set an appointment. Regardless of the outcome, you are being obedient to the call of God. He will reward your courage and diligence and provide what you lack. In due time, I am sure that “He who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion...” (Philippians 4:9)

Pax Christi,

Dan

Seeking Spiritual Direction - Recommendation

2009-03-24T04:00:00.000-06:00

Seeking Spiritual Direction - How to Grow the Divine Life Within

Father Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Father Thomas Dubay has written a practical guide for Christians who are considering spiritual direction or who are already engaged in the process. He explains what spiritual direction is, the qualities to look for in a good spiritual director, the process of finding a director, ways to develop a deeper prayer life, and how to continue growing when your enthusiasm wears thin.

- Struggles Finding a Spiritual Director

2009-03-23T04:00:00.005-06:00

Q: Father John, I haven’t been able to find a spiritual director yet (which is kind of frustrating). I am still looking, but what should I do in the meantime? Can someone be their own spiritual director?

A: This is a deeper question than you might think. First, continue to ask God to put you in touch with someone who can be your spiritual director. (If you haven’t read the post about how to find a spiritual director, you may find it helpful.) Judging by the surveys we have done on this blog, you are not alone. You can count on my adding my prayers to yours for this intention.

The second part of your question opens up some critical issues. Can someone be their own spiritual director? On the surface, the answer is obvious: of course not. The main point of spiritual direction is providing oneself with an objective point of view. As the old proverb puts it: no one is a good judge in their own case. When a quarterback is leading his team on the field, he can see a lot of what’s going on, but his coaches up in the box have a bird’s eye view of the whole field, and their input will usually mean the difference between victory and defeat. We all tend to favor our strong suits and ignore our weaknesses. This is true for musicians, athletes, actors… It’s a human thing. That’s why in all areas of expertise and growth, a good coach, instructor, or teacher is so necessary. They shed light on our blind-spots and encourage us to pay attention not only to what we want to work on, but to what we really need to work on. This objective point of view is all the more valuable because of the director’s larger share of wisdom and experience. In the 1981 Academy Award winning film, Chariots of Fire, based on a true story, the Olympic runner Harold Abrahams realizes that if he wants to win a medal, he can’t depend solely on his extraordinary natural talent and exemplary dedication. He has to find a coach. He does, and it pays off.

But there is another side to this issue. Even if we have a good spiritual director, that is no guarantee of spiritual growth. A medical doctor can prescribe a certain medicine to cure an ailment, but the patient then needs to take that medicine. A spiritual director can point out a path to greater spiritual maturity, but it’s up to each one of us to generously, perseveringly, and enthusiastically pursue that path. Spiritual direction is one of the tools the Holy Spirit uses to shape us into the saints he created us to be, but it’s only one of the tools, and its effectiveness depends primarily on our own sincerity, docility, and determination to seek an ever greater friendship with Christ.

So, if you are having trouble finding a spiritual director, you don’t need to worry about it. If you are making a reasonable effort to look for one, God will honor that, even if the search is a long one (God has his reasons). In the meantime, the Lord isn’t just twiddling his thumbs and checking his watch. Not at all! He is still the Lord, and he can direct you and guide you closer to his heart, if that’s what you really want. He offers us so many other means of spiritual growth – some might say too many! Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you continue to pray for and seek a spiritual director:

Are you going regularly (every 15 days is a good rule of thumb) to confession and preparing well for it?
Is your Eucharistic life (frequent communion, Mass, and adoration) robust or anemic?
Are you spending time daily in mental prayer?
Are you reading good spiritual books (here's a list just for those who have yet to find a director) and cultivating healthy friendships with other people who are also seeking to follow Christ more closely?
Do you choose entertainment and relaxation activities that ennoble your soul instead of merely distracting your mind (good literature and art, contact with nature, rich music and intelligent films…)?
Are you putting a respectable mental effort into finding ways to bring others closer to Christ, to build up your local Church?

All of these activities will build your friendship with Christ, and the Holy Spirit will speak to you and guide you as you pursue them, whether or not you have been able to find a good spiritual director or confessor.

So, in short, don’t give in to those feelings of frustration. They are a sign that you are eager to seek Christ, an eagerness that can come only from God. But they also may be a sign that you are a bit impatient, wanting God to go at your preferred pace, instead of patiently and trustingly following along at his (much wiser, even if more uncomfortable) pace.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Challenges With Spiritual Direction

2009-03-21T04:00:00.004-06:00

We received over 180 responses to our Spiritual Direction Poll! We asked, "What describes your spiritual direction situation." About 103 of you (56%) indicated you have a spiritual director. 75 of you (41%) indicated you did not but wish you did. I wonder if you would be willing to share your stories in order to serve others? Here are two questions that I think would reveal helpful answers:

1) For the 56% who have a spiritual director, was there ever a time when you desired to have spiritual direction but did not? How did you overcome this challenge?

2) For the 41% who desire spiritual direction but don't have it, what is getting in the way? What are your challenges and frustrations? Do you have any ideas about how to resolve them?

In Christ, Dan

Your "Into the Deep" Stories

2009-03-20T04:00:00.000-06:00

Your responses to the "What drove you into the deep" post were fascinating. It is amazing how God never ceases to pursue us and is always ready to receive us back into his arms. Regardless of our sin, obstinance, rejection, or wandering, He is always speaking, leading, prompting us back home. Then, when we arrive, He reaches out beyond justice - to mercy - and welcomes us with the rejoicing of heaven. Here's a recap - or at least my interpretation of the way He led you deeper into His grace.

Beans in a garden - God's amazing creation - and His job description...
Motherhood...
John Paul II
A Car Crash - The brevity of life
Baptism - John - this is you
Death - loss - The brevity of life again
An arranged marriage - funny - I just talked with my friend from India yesterday and met his wife for the first time - arranged marriage too. Amazing level of commitment and love!
The ever constant nudging of God

May we always listen for His voice - and keep moving, "into the deep."

In Christ, Dan

- Demon Possession and Mental Illness

2009-03-16T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: Father John, what is the difference between demon possession and mental illness or depression as you discuss in unit 122 of “The Better Part?”

A: There is no cut-and-dried answer. Here are some basic principles.

Not all psychological difficulties can be classified as mental illness. Some are linked to changeable patterns of behavior or basic human maturity issues. These can be remedied by healthy living, sense of community, human and spiritual formation, the discovery of a mission in life, and other fruitful activities. For example, sometimes mild but persistent depression or problems with anger management are really rooted in patterns of sin that have torn apart a person’s interior balance.

It also must be said, however, that mental illness is a reality. Mental illness goes deeper; it is a dysfunction or disorder rooted in the structure of the personality. Mental illness in these cases is not always caused by direct demonic activity. Many (probably most) times, it is caused by traumatic physical or psychological experiences, or genetic/physiological imbalances, or a combination of any of these factors. In these cases, sometimes medication can help a person lead an almost normal life. Other times, good psychological counseling or treatment (“good” means in harmony with the Christian understanding of the human person) can help a person lead an almost normal life. In some cases, however, the illness is so deep that even medication and sound treatment can only help contain the problem, they cannot completely solve it. This is a life-long cross for the person and their family. Nevertheless, in all cases, from mild to extreme, a healthy spiritual life (prayer, sacraments, Catholic fellowship) should be developed. Discovering God’s love, and learning to live in its’ light, is the only path to full healing for all of us.

We also have to reiterate that demonic activity is real – the Church teaches this clearly, and it is obvious in the Gospels. The devil normally works by stirring up temptations in the areas of the seven deadly sins (greed, lust, anger, sloth, pride, envy, gluttony). Sometimes, the devil and his buddies work in more supernatural ways. This can be through “obsession,” by which a demon will bother a person from outside, causing chronic physical, physiological, or psychological pain. This can also be done through “possession,” by which a demon takes temporary control of a person’s physical and bodily capacities from within (but not their soul). Why God permits these demonic manifestations is a bit of a mystery. In either of these cases (obsession or possession), the devil has to work his damage by disrupting human nature, the normal functions of the human person. This is why mental illness (a natural disruption of human nature) often has characteristics that also appear in the case of demonic activity (supernatural disruption of human nature).

So the question arises, how can I tell if there is some demonic activity going on in the case of someone suffering some symptoms of mental illness? Usually (but not always), there will be something in the person’s past that could provide a clue – they or their family members (parents, siblings…) used to play around with the occult (pagan, new age, wiccan, and other such practices are making a comeback in many parts of modern secular society). Or, they react strangely to holy things – like blessed rosaries, other blessed items, holy water, priests, Mass, the other sacraments and sacramentals, etc.. Sometimes, however, the only clue is that the illness is persistent and doctors seem unable to treat it effectively. If there are some yellow lights in this regard, it is a good idea to invite the person to see the diocesan exorcist (every diocese has one, or is supposed to). The exorcist will talk with the person, ask some questions about the origin and characteristics of the problem, and make a preliminary recommendation. Exorcists almost always also have some dependable psychologists that they work with, to help discern confusing situations. If it is reasonable to suspect that the person is obsessed or possessed, and if the person wants, an exorcism can be arranged. This sounds dramatic, but it is actually normal practice for the Church – every since Christ’s own day.

More distinctions could be made, and a lot more could be said, but maybe those ideas will help clarify some concerns for you. If you like to read, there is an excellent book on the subject called “An Exorcist Tells His Story” by Fr Gabriel Amorth, head exorcist in Rome for decades. He gives examples and helps explain a lot of the confusing issues involved.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Overcoming Distractions in Prayer Series from Father John - Topical Index

2009-03-14T18:11:00.000-06:00

The following are links to a three part series from Father John on how to overcome distractions in prayer:

Part I - Attachments and Vigilance

Part II - Developing a Unified Heart

Part III - Practical Perspective and Practices

Based on your feedback, the purpose of this post is to provide you with one place where you can find all the postings for any series. We hope this is helpful.

In Christ, Dan

What drove you "into the deep"?

2009-03-13T06:00:00.005-06:00

Now that there are hundreds of regular readers of this blog all over the world, I wonder if we can begin a kind of dialogue about our journey to God. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux has described several degrees or stages of love in our spiritual journey. At the beginning of this quest a person discovers God as their highest good, and serves him for the benefits they receive. In another stage, the good of God is realized and pursued out of love for God himself. Finally, love for God is all consuming, and all are loved for God and in God. If you are interested in anything on this blog, you are likely in one of these stages. So, this as a given, I would like to pose a question to you. I am not looking for eloquence or perfect sentence structure - just stories - about your faith - real reflections about your path to God.

Here's the question: What was the catalyst for you? What drove you deeper into your faith? It is hard for me to imagine that this blog would be interesting to those who have yet to feel compelled to dig deeper in their faith. Why are you compelled? What happened? Who prodded you deeper? What life event helped you to see that you were made for more?

For me, in large measure, it has been the gift of suffering. When you experience suffering at a young age, it either shatters you, or makes you ask questions. In my case, it was both. Death of loved ones, abuse, physical trials, one medical procedure after another... it all pointed me to the inescapable fact that I could be face to face with God at any moment. Life is fragile and fleeting. Yet, there is something about life and living that puts us to sleep spiritually. We just assume that we will rise tomorrow for another day. For me, hard circumstance has shattered this illusion. This drives me deeper. It drives me to an obsession with the ultimate questions of life. At this point, I have no doubt about what is truly real and important. This does not mean that I don't get sucked into the temporal; unfortunately it happens every day. However, I know that without Christ, without prayer, without the Eucharist, and the Church, all else has absolutely no meaning. However, with Christ, all of life can and will be redeemed. Every storm can and will give way to a new and beautiful dawn.

So, enough about me. What is your story? Why have you ventured "into the deep"?

In Christ, Dan

Vocal Prayer and Mental Prayer, Part 1

2009-03-12T04:00:00.001-06:00

Q: Father John, what is the difference between vocal prayer, and mental prayer?

A: Vocal prayer consists of lifting our hearts and minds to God by means of previously composed words (recited either silently or out loud). Though useful when we find it hard to concentrate in our prayer or when we are buffeted by distractions, vocal prayer poses the danger of routine: simply saying the words without meaning them. The secret to vocal prayer is to align our hearts with the sense of the words. This way, even though the words we are using are not spontaneous, we are truly entering into a conversation with God.

Mental prayer is a conversation with God using words that come to us in the moment, that are not previously composed. This usually requires more effort than vocal prayer, since our weak faith makes it hard to be and stay convinced that God is truly present in our conversation. Often, mental prayer takes the form of Christian meditation, which utilizes a scriptural or spiritual text or illustration as a springboard for our conversation with God. After reading a passage from the Gospels, for instance, you think about what it means, what it teaches us about Christ and his plan for our lives. That reflection will naturally lead you into prayers of thanksgiving to God, or praise of his goodness, or petitions for forgiveness or aid. That process of reflecting and responding is the typical way to carry on a conversation with God in your own words – i.e. mental prayer, or Christian meditation.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

A Prayer for True Joy and Happiness

2009-03-10T04:00:00.002-06:00

O Lord, Father most merciful, receive, I beg You, Your prodigal child! I have suffered enough; I have long enough been a slave of Your enemies, which You put beneath Your feet; I have been long enough the plaything of false flatterers. I know that I must turn to You. When I knock at Your door, let me find it open; show me the way to come to You. All I know is that I must despise unstable and temporary goods to seek those that are stable and eternal.

O Lord, keep far from the heart of Your servant the thought that any kind of joy will bring happiness! On the contrary, there is a kind of joy which is not granted to the wicked, but to those who honor You unselfishly. You are their joy. All happiness consists in this: to rejoice in You, because of You and through You; there is no other. He who believes that any other happiness exists is pursuing a strange and false joy.

Saint Augustine

Overcoming Distractions in Prayer Part III

2009-03-09T04:00:00.002-06:00

Q: Father John, how can I overcome distractions in prayer?

A: Having discussed the difference between voluntary and involuntary distractions, as well as the reason why God permits involuntary distractions, we are now ready to roll up our sleeves and get practical.

We will never be able to eliminate completely involuntary distractions (the ones that come into our heads uninvited and try to drag our attention away from the subject of our prayer) but we can do some things to help minimize them.

First, we can strive for regularity in our prayer commitments. As human beings our minds and bodies are intricately interwoven. Just as disciplining ourselves to follow a more or less regular schedule for sleeping, eating, and exercising gets our biorhythms humming steadily and healthily, so a little discipline in our prayer life helps our minds focus on the quest of meditation. Remember, though, that external circumstances are only a means to an end; they are meant to help us seek God more energetically and sincerely in prayer. They themselves are not the goal, so we have to keep flexible. Otherwise, we fall into Pharisaical legalism, thinking that “man was made for the Sabbath,” not “the Sabbath for man.” That said, here are some external factors that we can usually control, and that will help create a propitious environment for prayer, one that nips a lot of involuntary distractions in the bud:

Stick to the same time of day for your mental prayer. If your daily meditation is 20 minutes long, don’t try to squeeze those 20 minutes into just any slot that opens up. Rather, schedule your other activities around your prayer time. If your prayer time is fixed and dependable, your prayer will become, over the long haul, more fruitful. Choose a time of day when you will likely have few interruptions, and when your energy level will be high. This is usually in the morning, before the hustle and bustle of daily duties and surprises start to clutter your mental radar screen, or during the first lull in those duties. Don’t make false excuses; it is possible to do this.
Stick to the same place. This too should be a place where you are likely not to be disturbed, a place that encourages you to focus on God and speak with him in the quiet of your heart. One businessman I know was leading such a hectic life at one point that he started to park his car in the cemetery for fifteen minutes on the way to work, and do his daily meditation there.
Prepare your material beforehand. It does not handcuff the Holy Spirit when we make a plan for our meditations, choosing ahead of time what book or resource we will use to help our conversation with God, and even what themes we will meditate on (this is a good topic for discussion with your spiritual director). On the contrary, if we have our notebook, Bible or meditation book, pen, personal prayer book, and whatever else we like to use during our meditation – if we have all those things ready ahead of time, it is much easier for us to focus on the important things when we actually begin our prayer. It is also advisable to call to mind the theme of tomorrow morning’s meditation the night before, as we are preparing for bed. This can get the mind working subconsciously even while we sleep.
Choose an appropriate posture during your meditation. If sitting in an easy chair tends to make you sleepy, don’t do your meditation sitting in an easy chair. Your posture should express both your desire to hear God’s Word, and your awareness that God is God. Often it is helpful, for example, to kneel during the first moments of your meditation, as you first address God and renew your awareness of his presence. During the more reflective time, it can be helpful to sit. Then, as you finish your meditation by conversing heart to heart about what God has shown you, you may want to kneel again.

To repeat, we always need to stay flexible – sickness, vacation, travel, and other personal and family factors will force us to make adjustments, and on special days (e.g. the anniversary of our baptism) we may want to change the time and place of our prayer. But insofar as it is within our power, the more regular and disciplined we can be in this regard, the more sources of involuntary distractions we will be able to neutralize. Likewise, the personal integrity required to follow through on these simple tactics will strengthen the virtue we need to dismiss the involuntary distractions that do show up.

These concrete tactics can help us limit involuntary distractions, but only gradually; we need to form good habits in these areas in order to enjoy their good results. If you don’t have these habits formed, start now, one by one.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek