The First Sunday of Lent always presents us with the account of the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the desert.  Although the Scriptures do not explicitly state that He was alone, that is what we sometimes think.  It was only after 40 days that the devil showed up and began his attempts to throw Jesus off His path.  The fact of this matter is that Jesus was indeed not alone in the desert.  For as the Second Person of the Trinity, He was always united with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Furthermore, St. Mark’s Gospel recount that during His time in the desert, “the angels ministered to Him.” (Mk 1:13)

Why is this important to point out?  Because I think we can sometimes fall into thinking that Lent is a time for us to be alone in the desert.  I have even heard people recommend that we not tell others what we are doing for Lent.  Perhaps the intention is good, to help us avoid drawing attention to ourselves.  But that can also foster a sense that Lent is about ourselves, our personal journey to conversion, our trying to become the best version of ourselves.  I do not dispute that we should desire to grow in holiness during Lent, but I challenge the notion that it is something we do primarily by ourselves.  Thus the reference to Jesus not being alone in His 40 days in the desert.  We stand to benefit more from Lent when we make this journey with others, not simply seeing it as a desert journey we make alone.  Let me offer some suggestions on how to do this.

First of all, do not conclude that I am telling you not to do those things that are often staples for Lent – giving up candy, going without coffee, giving up social media, etc.  We can still choose these things for ourselves, but let us always be aware that others are on the journey with us.  The people you live with, the people you see at Mass on Sunday, the random person you see at the fish fry on Friday evening – all are part of the journey.  It can be a good practice to make it a habit to pray for our fellow travelers making this desert journey with us.  Ask God to bless their efforts, ask Him to support them and encourage them, to help them grow in love of God and of their neighbor through the practices that they choose for Lent.  It is a good way of reminding us that we are not alone, and we can be consoled in knowing how we are all united in prayer with and for one another as we journey together.

It can also be helpful to choose to do something with somebody else during Lent.  It is like working out at the gym.  It is often easier to be motivated to go when we know somebody is there with us.  In that regard, we are giving you an opportunity to do just that.  Later on in the bulletin, you will see information about joining us for a parish-wide study through FORMED on the Eucharist called Presence.  Each week there is a video to watch and a reflection question.  I therefore challenge you to identify at least one person (and it can be more, like an entire family) to go through this program with, checking in once a week to discuss the video and the question.

Finally, I would like to invite you to consider joining us on Sunday afternoons during Lent at 4:00 pm for Eucharistic Adoration.  At 4:30 pm, we will pray Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours together.  If you have never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, this would be a great opportunity to be exposed to it.  In addition to the Mass, it is an official prayer of the Church.  Priests and deacons have an obligation to pray these prayers each day, and the lay faithful are certainly encouraged to join in, for this prayer belongs to every member of the Church.  It is another opportunity for us to do something together as we all journey together during this sacred season.

Father Alford     

As we embark on a new journey of faith, and renew our conviction to remain faithful to God, as we are about to enter into the season of Lent this Wednesday with the Ash Wednesday. Lent  season, is a time of conversion, a time for Change, and a time to purify ourselves Let us all renew our conviction to love the Lord wholeheartedly once again, and with the resolve to love one another most generously, forgiving those who have hurt or pained us, and helping one another to grow ever stronger in faith, by living our own lives most worthily and by doing what God has taught and shown us all to do. 

One very long the liturgical season of Lent is with us. Not very long ago, we were celebrating Christmas, then a short period of Ordinary Time and here we are today in Lent! Then after 40 days or so, we shall usher in the Easter period, Pentecost and on we go on our journey of Faith, why all these changes in time? Why could we not just settle down in one season throughout our journey of Faith?

These liturgical Seasons come with their correspondent graces and Implications! These seasons bring about changes. These seasons and changes are somehow disturbing the inner most desire of man to settle down. The older we become, the less enthusiast and willing are we to change. A change is supposed to introduce something New. One of the many ways of our resistance to changes is to make the OLD come in the form of New! Because anything New makes us suspicious! The more used we are to our environment, our way of doing, our point of view of life, the more comfortable we feel and the more we resist to change! In other words, these seasonal changes are sources of conflicts in our lives and since we do not want conflicts we turn down the seasonal graces that comes to us! For this reason, even if and when we say yes to these seasonal changes, in reality, our style of life, our old habits remain intact all round the cycles! If we desire changes, we desire it for others and not for ourselves! Lenten season, a time of conversion, a time of change. What does this mean to you personally and in your community? We all have seasons in our personal lives. Which season are you experiencing at the moment? Are you in rainy season, dry season, Lenten season or Easter season in your life? 

It is only through prayer and regular dialogue with God, that we can acknowledge the various seasons of our lives. Keeping in touch with God, keeping in touch with ourselves would allow us to see God’s presence in the different seasons of our lives. Lent is a period of purification and enlightenment or illumination. To purify is the act of making pure, to purify is to cleanse. The season of lent is a time in our personal lives for new life to appear and for old frozen attitudes to disappear. It a time to clear the ground, to clear away rubbish. A time for sowing so that one day, the day of the Lord, there will be harvest. Lent, a time for penance and Charity renews in us our call to Holiness. We need to dedicate more time for prayer, a prayer that helps us to embrace the demand for conversion in preparation for Easter.  Let us not miss this opportunity to listen to the voice of the Lord inviting us: “Return to me with whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning, Rend your hearts not your garments, and return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful”( Joel 2:12-13)

Feast Day: March 7th| Mother and Martyr | Patronage: Mothers, Expectant Mothers, Mothers who have lost Sons, Ranchers, Butchers, Carthage, Widows | Attributes: Women standing side by side; Holding Palm of Victory, Cross of Martyrdom; Praying and Singing, Embracing and Giving Kiss of Peace; Attacked by Wild Cow; Halo’s Intertwined; Perpetua holding Sword, holding Son, Dressed as Noblewoman.

Some young catechumens were arrested: Revocatus and Felicity, his fellow slave; Saturninus; and Secundulus. And among these was also Vibia Perpetua—a woman well born, liberally educated, and honorably married, who had a father, mother, and two brothers, one of whom was also a catechumen. She had an infant son still at the breast and was about twenty-two years of age. From this point there follows a complete account of her martyrdom, as she left it, written in her own hand and in accordance with her own understanding.

 “While,” she said, “we were still with the prosecutors, my father, because of his love for me, wanted to change my mind and shake my resolve. ‘Father,’ I said, ‘do you see this vase lying here, for example, this small water pitcher or what- ever?’ ‘I see it,’ he said. And I said to him: ‘Can it be called by another name other than what it is?’ And he said: ‘No.’ ‘In the same way, I am unable to call myself other than what I am, a Christian.’” Then my father, angered by this name, threw
himself at me, in order to gouge out my eyes. But he only alarmed me and he left defeated, along with the arguments of the devil. 

Then for a few days, freed from my father, I gave thanks to the Lord and was refreshed by my father’s absence. In the space of a few days we were baptized. The Spirit told me that nothing else should be sought from the water other than the endurance of the body. 

After a few days we were taken into the prison. I was terrified because I had never before known such darkness. Oh cruel day! The crowding of the mob made the heat stifling; and there was the extortion of the soldiers. Last of all, I was consumed with worry for my infant in that dungeon. Then Tertius and Pomponius, the blessed deacons who ministered to us, arranged by a bribe that we should be released for a few hours to revive ourselves in a better part of the prison. Then all left the prison and sought some time for themselves. I nursed my baby, who was now weak from hunger. In my worry for him, I spoke to my mother concerning the baby and comforted my brother. I entrusted my son to them. I suffered grievously when I saw how they suffered for me. I endured such worry for many days, and I arranged for my baby to stay in prison with me. Immediately I grew stronger, and I was relieved of the anxiety and worry I had for my baby. Suddenly the prison became my palace, so that I wanted to be there rather than anywhere else. [Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, II-III, Translation by Thomas J. Heffernan, 2012].

I want to dwell this week on that little water-pitcher that Perpetua recorded for us in her diary. The word she uses in Latin is urceolum, a small vase or pitcher, and in the Greek version it is σκεῦος, a vessel of any kind or household implement. The phrasing that Perpetua uses belies her familiarity with Platonic philosophy as well as the New Testament. Of course, this ordinary word, is used in an ordinary way for the “goods” of the house protected by the strong man (Mark 3:27) and later to describe the bowl containing the vinegar offered to Jesus on the Cross (John 19:29). However, it is uniquely associated with an individual in Our Lord’s words to Ananias when He sends him to heal Saul (until then a rabid killer of Christians), “Go, for he is a choseninstrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” [Acts 9:15-16]

Just as a water-pitcher cannot be called something other than what it is (“quam quod est”), so a Christian cannot claim any other identity above the one they have received in Jesus. Perpetua was a noblewoman, a daughter, and a mother, but above all these she was a little-Christ (“Christian”), a daughter of God the Father. Jesus had said that “You will be brought before kings and governors because of my name” [Luke 12:12] and so, even when to claim that identity was the only evidence needed to convict her, Perpetua did not hesitate to take Christ’s name as her own. Her own characteristics – her intelligence, nobility, even motherhood – were not of highest importance, but that she was a vessel carrying Christ. “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair.” [2 Cor 4:7-8]

– Fr. Dominic Rankin cannot neglect to point out, following after St. Augustine, that these two saints, named “Perpetua” and “Felicity”, point us towards the “Perpetual Felicity” that they have already received from Christ. We will come to know Felicity next time.

The final step in our three-part schema for the spiritual life is to take action.  As a reminder, this step happens only after we have become aware and understood the voice speaking to us.  If we fail to do this, there can be some unfortunate consequences.  Let’s take an example.  You wake up one Sunday morning and you are tired after a short night of sleep.  Mass begins in just over an hour, but as you lay in bed you think: “I don’t really get much out of Mass these days.  I find myself distracted and not terribly interested in the homilies.  This bed is nice and warm, and another hour or two would sure be nice.  Maybe I will just go back to bed.  I’ll make it back to Mass next weekend.”

Perhaps our subject is somewhat aware of the voice that is speaking, but there is not much of an effort to understand here.  The person is experiencing some spiritual desolation, not feeling the closeness of God, feeling sort of dry and tired (physically and spiritually).  If this person would understand that this is what is going on, they would realize that the voice they are listening to is not the good spirit.  Instead, they will remember what St. Ignatius teaches in his fifth rule of discernment:

In time of desolation never to make a change; but to be firm and constant in the resolutions and determination in which one was the day preceding such desolation, or in the determination in which he was in the preceding consolation. Because, as in consolation it is rather the good spirit who guides and counsels us, so in desolation it is the bad, with whose counsels we cannot take a course to decide rightly.

Therefore the person who is paying attention, being aware of what is going on, then understanding what is being said, will more easily take the necessary action, rejecting the suggestion from the evil spirit to just stay in bed, and being firm in the commitment to going to Mass.

As I wrote in last week’s article, taking action really boils down to accepting and obeying the voice of the good spirit, and rejecting that of the enemy spirit.  If the first step of being aware is the most necessary step, and understanding is the most complex, perhaps taking action is the most difficult step.  It is hard for us to act contrary to the temptations and desires that often attack us.  Giving in to these temptations if often much easier, and we like to take the path of least resistance.  But choosing to do the right thing will always be a source of blessing to us.

Let us never forget that this whole process is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit come to our aid in understanding the truth of what is going on in our minds and hearts.  These gifts also come to our aid to help us to do what the Lord is calling us to do, especially with the gift of fortitude.  Rejecting the bad and choosing the good is not dependent on simple willpower from us.  No, the Holy Spirit generously comes to our assistance to provide the strength we need to act in accordance with God’s will.  

With that in mind, perhaps a good phrase to keep at the ready in our daily life is the simple prayer: ”Come, Holy Spirit!”  As we become aware of the voice that is speaking to us, we call out to the Holy Spirit to come and help us to understand whose voice is speaking.  Then, in becoming aware, we call out again: “Come, Holy Spirit” to strengthen us to reject what needs rejecting and to choose what needs to be chosen.

Prayer with the Holy Spirit, as I have mentioned, is a pathway to freedom.  The more aware we are of what is moving within us, the better we will understand, and that understanding will lead us to making choices that will lead to the freedom the Lord desires for us as His beloved children.

Father Alford     

As we continue to deepen our relationship with Jesus in Holy Eucharistic and meditating on the Eucharistic revival in this year of Eucharist in our Diocese. I would like each one of us to flash back on his/her experience receiving Holy communion for the first time. When I first received the Holy Eucharist, I was overwhelmed and I was excited to receive Jesus in my heart, I felt more closer to Jesus and nourished by His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. I think each one of us have unique experience for the first time receiving Holy Communion. When you receive the Holy Communion for the First time, what a special day for you, your family and for the Church too, and more importantly, you are special because Jesus will be in your heart. You can remember the way you were dressing, girls dressed as brides with veils, and boys dressed as bridegrooms in suits and ties. I am going to share with you three points, and hope that you remember as these points are essential for you not only today but for the journey of living your faith ahead.

Eucharist – Food for the SOULS: you have received the Holy Eucharist, in another word, the Body of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? You have learned about Him for the last months of your catechists. Jesus Christ is our Savior and King. He offered His life for us. He loves us so much and He wants to be with us forever, therefore before He died, He had a last meal with his disciples, and at that night, He asked his disciples to do what He instructed, that is celebrating the Meal. Eucharist is a Meal. Eucharist is solid spiritual Food. It is important to eat properly every day to avoid hunger pains, weakness, malnutrition, and disease. It is the same with our spiritual life. We need to be spiritual-food conscious if we wish to avoid emptiness, spiritual weakness, vulnerability to temptation, and sickness due to sin. In the Holy Eucharist, we are fed, we are full after mass as we have food. The Food is Jesus Christ body and blood. We go home full, full of spirit, and energy to live out our faith for the whole week. This Food will be your nutrition to live out for the whole week. Also, Eucharist means “Thanks,” attending Mass then receiving the Eucharist is the best WORD of Thanksgiving. Therefore, students/ Children you need to go to Mass every Sunday to receive this special Food, and to thank God. 

When you come up here to receive the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, children, you may be surprised because you cannot see the difference by tasting this little white Host with a round shape. You may think that is only a host, but Faith tells us that is the Body of Christ, because if we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will believe whatever He tells us is true. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted His apostles to do what He just did in “remembrance of Me.” This is my Body. This is my Blood. At Mass, With the power of the Holy Spirit, through priest, the little white Host and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, that sounds magic to you, and hard to believe because you cannot see it with you own eyes, right?

But there are things that we cannot use our senses to see, or touch or smell, but it does not mean those things do not exist. For example, can you see or touch, or punch the air? (Wait for a few answers, you can ask a volunteer to come up where you are, and facing the congregation, and ask this question). No, you cannot see, touch, or smell the air but the air does exist. How do you know the air exist? (Wait for a few answers). You know the air exists because you can breathe, thanks to the air we can breathe, otherwise, no life on earth, and we are not here but somewhere else in a cemetery, right? So, we believe and know for sure that the air exists, even though we cannot see or touch or smell, so the Holy Eucharist too, you only see the little Host, but our Faith tells us that, after the consecration the host becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine becomes the Blood of Christ. In Holy Eucharist, Christ present and a little white, round Host is truly Body of Christ. At the consecration, the bread and wine through the power of the Holy Spirit, Transform and become the Body and Blood of Christ. This is not a symbol but Jesus’ real flesh and blood, under the appearance of the bread and wine. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive Christ Himself. The Bread and Wine are no longer Bread and Wine but, Jesus Himself. He is real food for our souls.

Remember that when you receive the Host, the taste and appearance may be the same as Bread, but that is the Body of Christ, the true presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. When you receive the Eucharist, you receive Christ Himself, so be respectful. After receiving it, you pray with Him and thank Him for being in your soul. Talking with him about what is in your heart and telling Him what your desires are and asking Him to fulfill it. Christ is King and our Savior, when you welcome an important guest into your house, your parents and you normally prepare the house very well, cleaning up, set up a nice table, good food….to show your hospitality and love to that person, and you want to impress that person too. So, Jesus is the King, the most important guest that enters your house, the soul today, so we need to prepare our souls too, your soul must be free from sins. It is important to eat good food in order to be healthy and fit. If you eat good food, you will be healthy; if you eat bad food, you will be unhealthy. Eucharist is Food for our souls, we receive the Holy Eucharist, means we receive Jesus Christ, WE BECOME CHRIST. Students/children. Receiving the Body of Christ means you act, behave like Christ. Always remember that from today on, Jesus Christ is in YOU, He lives in your hearts therefore your life must reflect the life of Christ. Jesus Christ loves us and everyone, so you are supposed to do the same things, that is loving others, love your parents, brothers, sisters, and neighbors, behave well in the family, listening and obey your parents and teachers. When you go to Mass on Sunday, you need to stay focus, and behave during Mass, every day, you need to pray, morning and evening before you go to Mass.

Therefore, student/Children, may I ask you a favor? Your mom and dad work so hard for you and for themselves, during the week, sometimes they forget today is Sunday, the Day you go to Mass to receive the Holy Food.  My favor is to please remind your parents to take you to Mass. On Saturday, you tell mom and dad, please take me to Mass tomorrow so that I may have food to eat, to nourish my soul. I want to receive the Eucharist at Mass, so mom, please take me there to fulfil my desire, my hunger.  I am sure that when you request that your mom and dad are so happy and glad to take you to Mass. Am I right, Parents? AND please remember that the mass is not entertainment. The purpose of the Mass is similar to the purposes for which Jesus offered Himself on the Cross. We spend time at Mass to worship God who made us and saves us. So please do come to Mass on Sunday to thank Him and ask Him to give you strength, grace to live the life of Christian, and to pray for favor to fulfill your intentions.  I would like to Invite you all to say this prayer after communion silently. 

Prayer after communion: Anima Christ.

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ,
inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ,
strengthen me. O Good Jesus, hear me. Within your Wounds hide me.

Permit me not to be separated from you. From the wicked foe, defend me.

At the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you That with your
Saints, I may praise you for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Feast Day: February 20th | Youngest Non-martyred Canonized Saints | Patronage: Children (especially in Portugal), those Captive, Ridiculed, and Ill | Attributes: Children, Holding Rosary, Lantern, Wearing Peasant Garb, Shepherding Sheep; Francisco Carrying Valise, Leaning on Crutch; Jacinta: Hand on Hip, Wearing Veil.

Francisco and Jacinta were the youngest siblings of 7 in a poor Portuguese family. As World War I tore the continent apart and as countless men never returned to their families, they cared for the family’s flock of sheep and played with their friends. Francisco was a calm and quiet boy, who, if not particularly pious, did share easily, and loved animals, even lizards and snakes (his mom, it should be noted, didn’t appreciate this last trait as much as the others!) Jacinta was full of affection and admiration for her older cousin Lucia and loved to dance, entertain, and collect flowers for those she loved. But, her more fiesty temperament could also lead her to pout and mope if not allowed to play with the bigger kids or take care of the sheep (for which she had carefully named each one!)

On one ordinary day, before these ordinary children, an ordinary angel appeared. The world needed a message from God and these were His chosen messengers. The Angel of Peace he called himself, and he was entrusted with God’s solution to the hatred and violence that plagued the world. It was a simple one, the same one that Jesus had shown us: “Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.” Perhaps more concretely, the angel offered these children an easy prayer that would help them to do this: “My God, I believe, adore, hope and love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You.”

This simple request would be the seed of sanctity for these young people. They began to make sacrifices every day: kneeling for their prayers, sacrificing some of their food, enduring the incomprehension of their family as well as ridicule and persecution from authorities who had long since forgotten God and considered the ruckus these kids were fomenting to be a distraction from the real problems of the world. Word had gotten out now that Mary was appearing to them each month and many were flocking to try and see what was happening. 

But sanctity is not all about sacrifice, it is mostly about receiving God’s love and gifts. In 1910 Pope Leo XIII had moved the age to receive Holy Communion earlier, from 12 down to 7 or so, but the Church – as sadly sometimes is the case – was lethargic in letting God’s love pour into the world. It was 1916 and Francisco and Jacinta had yet to receive their first Holy Communion. God was going to change that. In August of 1916 the Angel came again, holding a chalice and the bleeding Eucharist. He taught them another prayer: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.” And then He gave them each Holy Communion. 

Each child would continue to make sacrifices in their own unique way. Francisco and Jacinta would both fall victim to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, enduring, and offering up, terrible sufferings for sinners as the doctors struggled to treat them. Francisco prayed many rosaries and examined his conscience carefully, knowing his lackluster piety as a little boy. He was given the Last Rites before he died, receiving the Eucharist for the second time. Jacinta offered up in particular the times she was all alone, a particular sadness for someone as lively and loving as her. She loved it when Lucia visited her after receiving Holy Communion for she knew she was close to Jesus who dwelt in her cousin but when she asked the priest for Holy Communion for herself he demurred. She died having only ever received the Blessed Sacrament from the hand of an angel.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin can only delight in the way that God’s grace was given to these little kids. Each of their temperaments, with their strengths and weaknesses, were exactly where God worked to ask their self-offering, and to offer Himself to them in turn. God wants the same for me! And, He can bring His Kingdom of Peace to the world through a child. He can only bring His Kingdom of Peace through a child!

Last Sunday, I introduced a brief three-week treatment of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Rules for Discernment.  The first step, though not necessarily the most important, is necessary, for if we are not even aware of the thoughts, feelings, and desires that are moving within us, we will not make much progress in the spiritual life.  I hope you have been more attentive to these movements as they come up throughout the day.

The second step is to understand.  This is by far the most complicated, and it is really at the heart of the teaching of the Rules of Discernment.  The 14 rules that St. Ignatius proposes are ways of coming to understand which voice is speaking – that of the Good Spirit, or that of the Enemy.  By understanding whose voice is speaking, we are then better able to take action, by accepting or rejecting that voice (more on that next week).

We do not have the time or space to address all of the rules, so I will just make a few remarks that are, in my mind, the key takeaways from the rules.  Let’s begin by quoting the first rule, just so you can see what the rules look like, but also to point out an important qualification that St. Ignatius makes regarding these rules:

The first Rule: In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is commonly used to propose to them apparent pleasures, making them imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason.

The important summary here is that the rules for discernment really only benefit those who are striving to grow in holiness.  If we are unconcerned about making progress, unconcerned about sins, then the voice of the enemy will leave us with words of pleasure that what we are doing is no problem.  The Good Spirit tries to break us from our complacency, stinging us with words that try to make us aware of the peril of continuing down this path.  But if we do not really care and we are not convinced that what we are doing is wrong, we will happily ignore the uncomfortable suggestion to repent and remain set in our sinful ways.  

On the other hand, the second rule says that when we are striving for holiness, these two spirits act opposite.  The evil spirit tries to sting us, telling us we’re wasting our time with prayer, following the teachings of the Church, etc.  He might say something like: “You’re missing out on so much!”, or “You can think for yourself, you don’t need the Church to tell you what you can and can’t do.”  I think you get the idea.  The good spirit, though, continues to offer encouragement, and even if we are stumbling, and the enemy is trying to distract us, our hearts are fundamentally fixed on the Lord, wanting to do His will, wanting to grow in holiness, and so we keep moving forward.

The next two rules treat the topic of spiritual consolation and spiritual desolation.  These are the ups and downs of the spiritual life that we are all subject to, no matter how holy we are.  There are times when God feels very close (consolation) and times when He feels distant and unresponsive (desolation).  We must understand that the evil spirit tries to use those moments of desolation to discourage us, but the good spirit will always be working to sustain us, always offering us the grace necessary to persevere through the darkness, to lead us back to a place of consolation in the future, and to eternal life at the end.

Perhaps a simple thing to remember is this: when we are earnestly striving to grow in holiness, we can be at peace knowing that the Lord always speaks with encouragement.  The enemy, on the other hand is, always trying to discourage us.  That may be a bit simplistic, but I think it’s a good place to start.

So as we go through this week, and as you continue to be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and desires, in other words the voices speaking into our lives – ask the question: Whose voice is speaking?  Understanding this is a key skill in the spiritual life and a means to being set free by the Holy Spirit.

Father Alford     

Feast Day: February 18^th | Religious Brother, Artist, Dominican| Patronage: Artists

Now we know him as Blessed Fra Angelico. “Blessed” because he has been beatified, though not yet canonized. “Fra”, a shortened version of “frater”, Latin for “brother”, the title for a mendicant friar. “Angelico”, a nickname given him for his devotion to God and attentiveness to his brothers in the order. But he had been baptized just Guido.

We know little about his family, but Guido was born in 1395 not too far from Florence Italy. He must have expressed an artistic bent from a young age because by the time he was 17 he had already joined an artistic guild in his hometown and was soon hired for a few projects at the Church of St. Stefano del Ponte. We don’t know what twists and turns led him from his paintbrushes in that Church to his joining the Dominican order, but 1423 he has taken the religious name Fra Giovanni (often surnamed “de Fiesole” distinguishing him from all the other Friar John’s throughout the order.)

Following the Lord always asks us to sacrifice our own will for God’s will. Did Guido struggle to make that sacrifice? Florence was booming with artists and painters – it was the epicenter of the budding renaissance movement! What would it cost him to become a religious? Would he lose himself, lose his joy, lose his gift? Yet didn’t Jesus speak directly to everyone wrestling with such questions: “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25) Jesus knows a key truth about us: freedom is not found in blindly following our desires! Were we to acquire for ourselves the entire world, were we to unrestrainedly follow our urges and instincts, were we to do whatever we wanted … we would not find ourselves free, but enslaved. 

And so Guido entered the Dominicans. He chose to trust God’s will above even his own. And soon he discovered that in following God, though we must entrust our freedom and future to Him, He does not leave out of His plan anything that is authentically ours, authentically good. There, in the Dominican convent, Fra Giovanni was asked to assist in illuminating manuscripts. Of the few pages we have of his, filled first with the words of scripture and prayer, the images that he weaves around and among those sacred letters leap from the page. We see not only his skill, but his love in carefully imagining the scene. The color, the lightness, the joy, the balance that pervades so many of his frescoes is visible in the tiny scene of the Annunciation crafted within the first “R”. 

He would go on to paint that scene – the Annunciation – many more times. Every single one is different. Each shows that he had returned again in his prayer and heart to the place where Mary said “yes” and God was conceived. He also took up anew the person for whom he was painting. When illustrating that manuscript, he uses exquisitely small brushstrokes to give features to Mary, Gabriel, and God, to let the reader come face to face with them. When painting for the altarpiece for a church in his hometown, the scene is vivid, exquisite, colorful, and tender. He uses perspective and light to captivate anyone who would look upon it, and places to the side Adam and Eve in their rejection of God’s plan. And when painting for a simple lay brother in his own monastery, the scene is reminiscent of the choir where that friar lived and prayed and welcomed the Lord into his own heart. 

Our talents, gifts, joys, and desires are also places to encounter the Lord, and help others to encounter Him. The question is whether we will entrust those parts of ourselves to God’s will?

–  Fr. Dominic Rankin routinely looks for freedom and fulfillment in the wrong places. Once again, the saints remind us that it is found only in God.

As I have mentioned in a previous bulletin article, I have been involved for the past two years in a Spiritual Direction Training Program offered by the Institute for Priestly Formation.  At the heart of the teaching is understanding and applying the 14 Rules of Discernment proposed by St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises.  These rules have their origin in an experience the saint had while recovering from an injury.  As he thought about different directions he might follow in life upon his recovery, he became aware of an important truth, described in his autobiography:

From experience he knew that some thoughts left him sad while others made him happy, and little by little he came to perceive the different spirits that were moving him; one coming from the devil, the other coming from God. (Autobiography, no. 8)

The fact that we have two opposing voices speaking to us is something we as Catholics generally acknowledge, but perhaps our best image of this is those cartoons which depict a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, leaving the person to try to figure out which voice to follow.  While this image may capture the reality generally, it is far more complex than that, thus the several rules of discernment proposed by St. Ignatius.  All the rules of discernment can fall under a basic formula that we as Catholics can follow.  The formula involves three steps:  1) Be aware  2) Understand  3) Take action.  

For the next three weeks, before we begin Lent, I would like to reflect briefly on these three steps, one each week.  While there is so much more that can be said, I am hopeful this introduction will open us all to a more attentive experience of prayer, such that we are able to discern when the Holy Spirit is speaking, and when another voice, not of God is speaking.  In knowing which voice is speaking, we can choose how to act based on that understanding.

The first step is being aware.  Whether we know it or not, there is always a voice that is speaking into our lives.  That is the first thing to acknowledge.  By knowing that, we can pay closer attention to what has our attention.  In other words, we are invited to notice our thoughts, feelings, and desires as they come up throughout the day.  This is the raw data for the discernment of spirits.  Having thoughts, feelings, and desires are not inherently sinful.  It is rather what we choose to do with them that determines their moral value (more on that in a later article).  

Living a life of spiritual maturity is more than just taking time to pray each day at specific times, necessary as that is.  A truly spiritual soul is one who is always aware of God’s presence, and the moment-by-moment opportunity that we have to consciously choose to love Him and follow Him as He communicates to us.  But we will never make those decisions to follow Him and reject the voice of the enemy if we are not aware of what is going on in our hearts and minds throughout the day.

Perhaps an exercise you could try this week is set an alarm or a reminder at some fixed intervals throughout the day – perhaps every hour, or a few times a day.  Then pause and just notice what your thoughts, feelings, and desires are.  Don’t think too much about them, or try to figure them out.  Just notice them, perhaps jotting them down.  This does not take much time or effort at all, but it is an important start to realizing what St. Paul encourages us to do, that we should “pray at every opportunity in the Spirit.” (Eph 6:18)

Father Alford     

Feast Day: February 5^th | Virgin and Martyr| Patronage: Sicily, Malta, & Gallipoli; Nursers, Jewelers, Rape Victims, Sufferers of Breast Cancer,  Sterility, Natural Disasters, and Torture | Attributes: Maiden mistreated, imprisoned, visited by St. Peter; tortured by pincers, amputated breasts.

St. Agatha is one of those saints that we know desperately little about except that where she was from (Sicily) and when she was killed (under the Decian persecution, around 251 AD). We have legends of her beauty and purity, accounts of her choice to remain a virgin and the angry reprisals inflicted upon her by the powerful (spurned) Quintianus. It seems she was miraculously cured, for she survived for a time the horrible injuries and indignities before dying imprisoned.

When writing or speaking about martyrs, we often run out of details, or simply cannot fathom their endurance, and conclude our account with the simple truth that “they died for the faith.” But when I look to try and then apply the example of their lives to mine, or seek to incorporate something of the grace they were given, I come up short. How does one “die for the faith”? What could possible carry me from an ordinary Morning Offering to standing steadfast before the worst tortures and still saying “yes”? Would I have their same endurance? Did it hurt as much as I imagined it did? ‘

To unravel this conundrum, I want to turn to the Church’s wisdom as regards martyrs. We start as always from Our Lord: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” Jesus calls out in His most famous sermon (no jokes to be found here!)  Later, before His own passion: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” These were realities that the Early Church endured: its members encouraging those hauled into the arena, praying for those who abandoned the faith, and honoring those who had been killed. Quickly it was these, the highest of witnesses to Christ [martyron in Greek] who were hailed as the greatest of saints.

St. Augustine sharpened this definition, clarifying that martyrdom is not based on the punishment you endure, but the reason for the punishment. (Plenty of Donatists were going around claiming to be martyrs because the government was being hard on them … Heads up: unfair taxes don’t bump you to the highest ranks of heaven, and neither does being penalized for heresy…) St. Thomas Aquinas further hones the Church’s definition of martyrdom to being killed for a truth of the faith. (In this way, John the Baptist is a martyr, not because he was killed for faith in Christ per se, but because he was killed for his denunciation of adultery). This logic has been applied more recently to saints like Maximilian Kolbe (a “martyr for charity”) and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (technically killed for her Jewish ancestry, but who remained imbued by Christian love until the end). Neither were killed specifically for their faith. They could not have apostatized and saved their lives. But because they did hold onto Truth and Love to the last, and by God’s grace had both the fortitude and charity to do so, we acclaim them not only saints, but martyrs.

What do we discover amid all these developments over the centuries, and all these examples of martyrdom? I take away one simple truth this week: every martyr died for Christ, but never generically, never ambiguously. Agatha died because she chose to live as a perpetual virgin. John the Baptist died because he had the chutzpah to call Herod (and Herodias) out for their fornication. Maximilian Kolbe because he offered his life in place of a doomed father. Teresa Benedicta because she refused to evade the Nazi’s, saying instead “come, we are going for our people.” 

Each died for a particular way that they chose Jesus and followed Jesus – perpetual virginity, the truth of marriage, self-sacrifice, accepting the cross – our discipleship must be similarly particular! We cannot be generic saints! The Lord is calling us to a particular way of following after Him, and only a “yes” to that specific emulation of our can carry us through whatever persecutions may come our way. 

– Fr. Dominic Rankin has only slowly realized that the particular way he is called behind Jesus is often found in his inbox or on his desk (or floor!). I would love more precision (or maybe what I’m really hoping for is greater glory…), but it seems that fortitude and charity, and truth and love, currently intersect there.