How to grow in holiness, the Catholic way

4 Ways to Grow in Holiness from St. Thérèse

I found this post here and thought it was worth re-blogging it.

Until I did that, I always thought of her as one of those saints who’s way beyond me. She’s a Doctor of the Church, for Pete’s sake. I could never measure up. What I learned in reading Story of a Soul was that she’s more relatable than I thought – and is especially relatable for our time.

Why is St. Thérèse so relatable?

St. Thérèse described herself as a little soul. Most of us are little souls too. Why? In our modern age, we’re used to a comfortable life. Our Mother Teresa’s and Karol Wojtyla’s are few and far between. I think most of us would agree that we’re too weak and little to become a saint. And still, we’re all called to do just that.

St. Thérèse knew she was too weak to become a great saint. In other words, she’s just like us. (She even struggled with praying the Rosary!) Yet, she became one of the greatest saints. Ever. St. Thérèse shows us how to achieve sainthood by taking baby steps. The key is a childlike trust in God, while having great love for God and others.

In honor of her feast day today (Oct. 1st), here are 4 tips for growing in holiness inspired by St. Thérèse:

1. Just keep trying to become a saint.

“The good God does not demand more from you than good will…Soon, won over by your useless efforts, He will come down Himself and, taking you in His arms, He will carry you up.”

The key to growing in holiness is that we continue to try. Even if we never see progress in ourselves, if we get up every time we fall and begin again, God is pleased with that. If we saw our progress, we might think it’s because of our own efforts that we grow in virtue. The inability to see our growth keeps us depending on God.

2. Don’t know how to love people? Begin by loving.

“I must seek out…the company of sisters who are the least agreeable to me…I want to be friendly to everybody to give joy to Jesus.”

Few of us know how to truly love people. If we don’t know how, we can start by doing little things: smiling at a passerby, doing the dishes for your roommate, refraining from complaining. We can start with little acts of love, especially toward those whom we don’t get along with, to teach us how. We learn to love by loving.

3. Prayer doesn’t have to be complicated.

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”

God is simple. He’s just happy that we show up to spend time with Him. We don’t have to do x, y and z for it to be good prayer. If it’s difficult or you get distracted – keep refocusing yourself and trust that it’s still good, even if you didn’t get the warm-fuzzies.

4. Focus on loving God, not on your faults.

“We have merely to love Him, without looking at ourselves, without examining our faults too much.”

God isn’t this judgmental figure waiting for us to mess up. He looks on us with love as His children. Children try to please their parents, but sometimes they make messes and spills. If we’re trying to become holy, God doesn’t reject us over our messes and spills. If we focus on God’s love and goodness, it’ll be harder for us to be discouraged.

St. Thérèse showed me that, while becoming a saint not easy, it is so simple. We don’t have to be discouraged about anything — weakness, failure, sin, or suffering. We can trust that God will make us a saint if we take one small step forward, every day.

Is St. Thérèse special to you? How has she impacted your life in what she did or said? We’d love to hear from you!

A prayer that says all you’ll ever need to ask for

A Prayer to Bind Evil Spirits and Make Them Leave Your Home

I got this prayer from a friend of mine: In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. May the angels of heaven be sent forth to protect us as we go forth as God’s servants to do His wil…

Source: A Prayer to Bind Evil Spirits and Make Them Leave Your Home

Holy Saturday – He descended into Hell

Today we commemorate Holy Saturday, the quiet, somber interlude between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Instead of sharing my own reflections I’d like to share this ancient homily, composed by an anonymous source. It brings to life that stirring line in the Apostle’s Creed: “He descended into hell.”

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son.

The Lord goes into them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: “My Lord be with you all.” And Christ in reply says to Adam: “And with your spirit.” And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying:

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.

I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.

Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.

See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.

The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia

Friends, on this Easter we should remember that Jesus is not just a soul that’s gone to heaven. The resurrected Christ, as Paul said, is the first fruits of a new life. A whole new human nature has appeared and emerged.

Resurrection can’t simply mean, as many contemporary authors want us to believe, that the cause of Jesus goes on. (As though you listen to the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven and the society of Beethoven lovers says, “Well, the spirit of Beethoven goes on.”) People don’t give their whole lives, don’t go to the end of the world preaching, don’t go to their death in support of a vague metaphor. What galvanized the first Christians was that Jesus – the crucified one who had died-is now alive again.

On this Easter, we Christians must avoid another problem: seeing the Resurrection simply as a return to this life. Lazarus was raised from the dead, only to die again. He still belonged to the realm of death. When Lazarus came forth, he was still wearing his grave clothes. He still belonged, in some way, to the tomb.

That’s not what happens in the Resurrection. When Jesus rises from the dead, He leaves his grave clothes behind. Jesus now lives a new life exalted through the power of the Father. His relationship to space and time is now completely changed. He passes through locked doors. He comes and goes as he pleases.

Jesus is the first fruit of a new way of being, a new life. It’s still a human life, but it is now lived at a higher pitch of intensity. This is such good news for us because this is what God intends for all of us: that we now will share in the risen life of Jesus.

It’s our human life – yes, still bodily – but now lived at a higher level, spiritualized and glorified.

A Reflexion on Holy Saturday

Crucifix at Saint Etienne-du-Mont

What is the message that Jesus has for the world? At first he seems to confirm his followers’ hopes: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.” Great! Finally, after putting things off for so long, he is ready; the moment has come.

But then he clarifies: “I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies it produces much fruit.” Believe me, this is not what his followers wanted to hear.

The Jews had had more than enough experience with death. They had lived under oppression for centuries and their glory days were long ago. The Roman boot was pressing down upon them. Those who would endeavour to throw it off were imprisoned or killed. And now this one, upon whom they had pinned their hopes, at the high point of his life, is speaking of falling to the earth and dying.

Then it gets stranger: “The man who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this world, preserves it to life eternal.” Come again?!

To understand what all this means, we should go back to the great image that Jesus uses, the grain of wheat that falls to the earth. A seed, resting by itself, can exist for a long time. In fact, they have found seeds in the tombs of the Pharaohs and seeds in fossil remains. But unless they fall into the soil and crack open, nothing further comes of them. Their life is inside, yes, but it’s a life that grows by being given away and mixing with the soil around it. It has to crack open and be destroyed. But even after a very long time, a seed can grow into a flourishing plant. The oldest seed that has grown into a viable plant was a 2000-year-old date palm seed from excavations at Herod the Great’s palace on Masada in Israel. It was germinated in 2005.

When you look at a great tree or a plant, you see none of the original seed, and yet you see life. The same is true of the cross. When Christians look at the cross, we no longer see death, but eternal life.

Originally published by Fr. R. Barron

If Jesus was a Jew, why are we Catholic?

Answer

Jesus was a Jew both ethnically and religiously, he completed the religion by serving as the Christ whom the Scriptures long foretold even though majority of the Jews did not believe in him.

Christianity is the completed form of the Ancient Jewish religion, it is a pity that many of those who were ethnically Jewish did not recognize his role as Messiah, for this many did not accept Christianity, the completed form of Judaism. Instead they remained incomplete with the religion.

It wasn’t long before it was understood through the direction of the Holy Spirit that one did not need to be ethnically Jewish to be a follower of Christ, thus the Apostles began to preach to, and baptise many Gentile converts to the Christian faith. So Paul speaks about ethnical and religious Judaism :

“For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.” Romans 2:28-29

As time went on, unfortunately some Christians broke away from the Church founded by Christ, so that a name became necessary to distinguish one Church from another. It was later decided that, the Church Jesus founded be called “Universal” from Greek Kataholos which means “according to the whole”, this is how the term “Catholic” was applied to this Church.

So Jesus was a Jew to complete the Jewish religion by creating a Church that would fulfil it and be open to people everywhere irrespective of their tribe and culture.

Obama wants to compare Jihad with the Crusades. Let’s educate him

Learn the key elements about exactly what the crusades were, when they occurred and why. We no longer learn any of this in American public schools, doesn’t that feel like it’s probably by design?

For the record, the crusades were completely REACTIONARY to a multi-century onslaught by jihadists. The purpose of the crusades were to free Christians while the purpose of jihad (Islam’s march) was to conquer and kill the kaffir (non-muslims). There is no moral equivalence to the two.

Watch this quick clip by Dr. Bill Warner regarding these mysterious crusades and please, please, please, share it!!!

Good times for dogs, not so good for babies. A Reflection on the Perversity of Modern Culture

There are so many reasons our western society is in frantic decline, but none is more acute and serious than our contempt for morals and natural justice, which are two of the three main pillars of Christian life, along with love of God and neighbour. As a result of this process we have seen an almost irrational increase in relativism; which is causing the notion of right and wrong to almost disappear from our so called developed societies, as most people now seem to believe that these concepts belong to the realm of personal opinion. In other words, what once used to be evil is now good and nobody cares… After all, everybody is entitled to have an opinion.

This phenomenon has lead some once God-fearing nations to almost forget and, in some cases, even deny their Christian identity. I found the article below to be consonant with many of the things I believe and thought I should share it with the followers of my blog. I hope you will enjoy it too; Via Catholicism Pure and Simple: Good times for dogs, not so good for babies. A Reflection on the Perversity of Modern Culture.

Where There is No Hatred of Heresy, There is No Holiness

by Father Frederick William Faber

If we hated sin as we ought to hate it, purely, keenly, manfully, we should do more penance, we should inflict more self-punishment, we should sorrow for our sins more abidingly.

Then, again, the crowning disloyalty to God is heresy. It is the sin of sins, the most loathsome of things which God looks down upon in this malignant world. Yet how little do we understand of its excessive hatefulness! It is the polluting of God’s truth, which is the worst of all impurities.

Yet how light we make of it! We look at it, and are calm. We touch it and do not shudder. We mix with it, and have no fear. We see it touch holy things, and we have no sense of sacrilege. We breathe its odor, and show no signs of detestation or disgust.

Some of us affect its friendship; and some even extenuate its guilt. We do not love God enough to be angry for His glory. We do not love men enough to be charitably truthful for their souls.

Having lost the touch, the taste, the sight, and all the senses of heavenly-mindedness, we can dwell amidst this odious plague, in imperturbable tranquillity, reconciled to its foulness, not without some boastful professions of liberal admiration, perhaps even with a solicitous show of tolerant sympathies.

Why are we so far below the old saints, and even the modern apostles of these latter times, in the abundance of our conversations? Because we have not the antique sternness? We want the old Church-spirit, the old ecclesiastical genius. Our charity is untruthful, because it is not severe; and it is unpersuasive, because it is untruthful.
We lack devotion to truth as truth, as God’s truth. Our zeal for souls is puny, because we have no zeal for God’s honor. We act as if God were complimented by conversions, instead of trembling souls rescued by a stretch of mercy.

We tell men half the truth, the half that best suits our own pusillanimity and their conceit; and then we wonder that so few are converted, and that of those few so many apostatize.
We are so weak as to be surprised that our half- truth has not succeeded so well as God’s whole truth.

Where there is no hatred of heresy, there is no holiness.

A man, who might be an apostle, becomes a fester in the Church for the want of this righteous abomination. We need St. Michael to put new hearts into us in these days of universal heresy.

But devotion to the Precious Blood, with its hymning of the Church and its blazoning of the Sacraments will give us Michael’s heart and the craft to use Michael’s sword. Who ever drew his sword with nobler haste, or used his victory more tenderly, than that brave archangel, whose war-cry was All for God?

The Precious Blood is His Blood, who is especially Uncreated Truth. It is His Blood who came with His truth to redeem souls.

Hence love of souls is another grace, which comes from the spirit of devotion to the Precious Blood. I wish “the love of souls” were words that were not so shortly said. They mean so much that we should linger over them, in order to imbibe their sweetness, perhaps also their medicinal bitterness as well.

A volume would hardly say all that wants saying upon this matter. In all ages of the Church a zeal for souls is a most necessary grace; and this is hardly an age in which it is less necessary than usual.

Alas! It is a rare gift, incredibly rare, rare even amongst us priests, and a gift unfortunately dishonored more than most gifts by base counterfeits and discreditable impostures.

Of all things that can be named, the love of souls is perhaps the most distinctively Catholic. It seems to be a supernatural sense, belonging only to the Church.

There are several classes of saints, classes divided from each other by wide discrepancies of grace, and a dissimilitude, almost an incompatibility, of gifts. Yet the love of souls is an instinct common to all saints of whatever class.

It is a grace, which implies the accompaniment of the greatest number of graces and the exercise of the greatest number of virtues. It is the grace which irreligious people most dislike; for it is a grace which is peculiarly obnoxious to the worldly.

It is a gift also, which requires an unusually fine spiritual discernment; for it is always and everywhere the harmony of enthusiasm and discretion. Natural activity, vulgar emulation, the bustle of benevolence, the love of praise, the habit of meddling. The over-estimate of our own abilities, the hot-headedness of unripe fervor, the obstinacy of peculiar views, the endless foolishnesses of indocile originality — all these things prepare so many delusions for the soul, and so multiply them by combining in varieties, that the gift of counsel and the virtue of prudence, as well as the cool audacity of an apostle, are needed for the exercise of this love of souls.

It is also a very laborious grace, wearing the spirit, fatiguing the mind, disappointing the heart.

This is the reason why in so many persons it is a short-lived grace. It is a part of almost everybody’s fervor, while it is part of the perseverance of very few. It is a grace which never grows old, never has the feelings of age, or the repose of age, or the slowness of age.

Hence many men cast it aside as a thing which belongs to youth, as if it were a process to be gone through, and then there was an end of it. The soul of an apostle is always youthful. It was mature in its young prudence; and it is impetuous in its grey-haired zeal.

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– Taken from The Precious Blood, Chapter VI “The Devotion To The Precious Blood”, by Frederick William Faber, originally published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers to the Holy See with a Dedication by Fr. Faber dated 1860 on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.