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.  

A few years ago, there was quite a dustup in the Catholic world when headlines started coming out that Pope Francis was thinking about changing the Lord’s Prayer!  In fact, a quick Google search resulted in the following headline: “Pope Francis made this big change to the Lord’s Prayer.”  I even remember somebody telling me how upset they were that the Pope was changing the most familiar prayer that we as Catholics know.

The rumor of the Holy Father’s change came from an interview that he did in which he was asked about a new French translation to be used in the liturgy.  The new translation addressed the petition: “lead us not into temptation”, and it would now take the form (in French) to be more like: “do not let us fall into temptation.”  When asked about this change, the Holy Father was supportive of the decision the French bishops had made, reportedly saying: “It’s me who falls. It’s not Him who pushes me into temptation, as if I fell. A father doesn’t do that. A father helps you to get up right away. The one who leads into temptation is Satan.”

The Holy Father’s comment was in no way a suggestion that the Lord’s Prayer should be changed for everybody, but it did give an opportunity for us to better appreciate this sometimes confusing petition in this prayer we love so well.  So how are we to understand it?  As is often the case, we can find a more than adequate answer from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to “lead” us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation” and “do not let us yield to temptation.” “God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one”; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle “between flesh and spirit”; this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength. (CCC 2846)

This petition, along with “thy will be done” upon which we reflected last week, is a very helpful one to invoke each day.  As human beings, we are constantly subjected to temptations, both from within and without.  In those moments when we come to understand that we are being tempted (not by God), we should not try to rely on our own willpower.  Rather, we cry out to the Father who loves us: “lead us not into temptation”, which is a cry for His protection and strength, for as He reminds us: “without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) We make this prayer with the confidence that St. Paul had in the Lord when he wrote: “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.” (Phil 4:13)

Speaking of temptations, it strikes me that all of this confusion is a subtle tactic of the deceiver, Satan, trying to distract us, even to the point of distrusting this petition, for he knows how powerful these words proposed by Jesus are in thwarting his attempts to lead us off course in doing God’s will.

Father Alford     

Feast Day: February 1^st | Bishop, Martyr, Apostolic Father| Patronage: Church in Northern Africa, in Middle East, in Eastern Mediterranean | Attributes: Attired as a Bishop, in chains, surrounded by lions

I have written on St. Ignatius of Antioch twice before, so I will not attempt another variation on his biography, but I direct your eyes to our stained glass window depicting his martyrdom in the Roman arena, and I direct your mind and heart to his words written the Christians in Smyrna around the year 110 AD, probably shortly before his martyrdom.

Let no one be deceived; even things in heaven and the glory of the angels, and the rulers visible and invisible, even for them there is a judgment if they do not believe on the blood of Christ. “He that receiveth let him receive.” Let not office exalt anyone, for faith and love is everything, and nothing has been preferred to them. But mark those who have strange opinions concerning the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary they are to the mind of God. For love they have no care, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the distressed, none for the afflicted, none for the prisoner, or for him released from prison, none for the hungry or thirsty.

St. Ignatius, just one generation after the Apostles, here upholds the true identity of Christ as both fully and fully divine. He writes in warning against Docetism (a variation on Gnosticism, both of those heresies scorning the God-given dignity and purpose of our bodies, and thus the reality of Christ’s Body). Ignatius knows the ramifications of such a doctrine do not just tinker with our understanding of Christ (and whether He actually saves us, body and soul!), but enter deeply into our own lives, and bodies. If our bodies have not been washed with Christ’s Blood, we will be incapable of authentic Christian charity. If charity is absent, Christ is absent.

They abstain from Eucharist and prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ who suffered for our sins, which the Father raised up by his goodness. They then who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes; but it were better for them to have love, that they also may attain to the Resurrection. It is right to refrain from such men and not even to speak about them in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets and especially to the Gospel, in which the Passion has been revealed to us and the Resurrection has been accomplished. But flee from divisions as the beginning of evils.

Recall that the Church invokes St. Ignatius during the Nobis Quoque prayer of the Roman Canon. The priest had just beaten his breast, declaring his own sinfulness before God (and by extension the sins of all the Church) and begging His mercy that we might be brought into fellowship with the Apostles and Martyrs including St. Ignatius. Sin is only a block to unity if it is not forgiven! That prayer concludes with those tremendous words, spoken with Christ’s Flesh and Blood resting before us on the altar: “admit us, we beseech you, into their company, not weighing our merits, but granting us your pardon.”The fact is that God has admitted us to the company of the saints – in Christ – and pardons us that we might be brought into even greater Holy Communion just moments later.

See that you all follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as if it were the Apostles. And reverence the deacons as the command of God. Let no one do any of the things appertaining to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. Wherever the bishop appears let the congregation be present; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful either to baptize or to hold an “agapé” [early Christian reference to the Eucharistic meal] without the bishop; but whatever he approve, this is also pleasing to God, that everything which you do may be secure and valid. [St. Ignatius, “Letter to Smyrnians”, paragraphs 6-8.]

Finally – after charity, and sanctity – Ignatius emphasizes a third necessity that comes from Christ’s real presence among us: unity. I think we all want these things! Charity, Sanctity, Unity … they are pithy, church-ey, words for sure, but ones that relate directly to our innate desires for kindness, respect, and peace … and perhaps our culture’s desire for tolerance, transparency, and harmony. What Ignatius is getting at is the bedrock truth that we will only find superficial versions of these graces without Christ. And though Our Lord’s grace is not cheap, it is worth seeking and finding. 

– Fr. Dominic Rankin does not sign his name with a cross (+) before it, as that practice has for centuries been the mark of a bishop. But early in the Church many priests would place a cross next to their name. This mark certainly was meant to show their union with Christ’s bodily sacrifice on the cross, but surprisingly this was also the first letter of the Greek word “tapeinós”[ταπεινός], meaning “humble” or “sinner”, that key word from the nobis quoque when the priest publicly proclaims his sinfulness to Christ. (Sometimes, especially in Latin documents, a priest would write out the entire word “peccator” before his name.)

Before jumping back into our reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, I have a quick correction to make to last week’s bulletin article.  I attributed a quote to St. Augustine about the Lord’s Prayer being the “most perfect of prayers” and that the petitions proposed by Jesus in this prayer express “all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired.” (CCC 2763)  In fact, this quote came from another theological giant – St. Thomas Aquinas!  As I went to where St. Thomas wrote this in his Summa Theologiae, he actually references St. Augustine!  Nevertheless, my apologies to St. Thomas, though I have no doubt he would be flattered to be confused with St. Augustine!

The point made by St. Thomas, rooted in the thought of St. Augustine, that the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer express all we should rightly (as opposed to inordinate desires) is key to our appreciating the Lord’s Prayer.  Spending time reflecting on each of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer can be a very fruitful spiritual exercise.  But in the interest of space and time, I will only make a few comments in my articles for the next two weeks.

The first point I would like to reflect on comes from another teaching that Jesus offers on prayer, found later in the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7 where Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt 7:7–8) With this teaching, the Lord is inviting us to be persistent in our petitions to Him.  We do not simply ask Him for something just once, we keep on asking.  That continual knocking in prayer is not to be understood as a way of convincing God to give us what we want.  Rather, our persistence in prayer helps to strengthen our desire for what the Lord already, in His loving Providence, desires to give us.  Sometimes He seems to remain inattentive to our petitions when we pray, but that silence is a preparation that our hearts need so that we can receive His gifts in the way that is best suited to our well-being, and ultimately, our salvation.

Now, as this relates to the Lord’s Prayer, since the petitions proposed by Jesus are the perfect set of petitions, this prayer should be one of the go-to ways by which we approach the Lord.  For sure, this means praying the entire prayer with faith, but we can also take individual petitions from the Lord’s Prayer and use them as a prayer in themselves, repeating them over and over, like a person knocking on the door.

Let me give you an example of what this might look like.  Perhaps we are praying that the Lord will bring an end to a difficulty we have been having.  Let’s say it is a bodily pain we have.  Our prayer might sound something like: “Please, heal me of this affliction.  Take this pain away from me.”  Knowing that the Lord’ Prayer offers us those perfect petitions, we can add: “but thy will be done!”  We ask, seek, and knock, but in the end, we trust in God’s will for us, which is always better than what our will desires.  Perhaps being freed from our suffering is the Lord’s will.  Great!  But even if it is not, we know that the Lord, in permitting our suffering, has something even greater in store for us through His Providence.  How do we know this?  Listen to a few verses later in Matthew 7: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mt 7:11)  Remember that we always begin the Lord’s Prayer with the words: “Our Father.”  We are His beloved children, upon whom He delights to give us good things when we ask Him, good things according to His most perfect and loving will for us.  So ask, seek, and knock in prayer with confidence, always concluding with that great petition of trust in the Father: “thy will be done!”

Father Alford     

When was the first building that we would consider a Catholic church built? Not a converted home or pagan temple, but a church dedicated the worship of Jesus Christ. – Joe Kessler 

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest Christian church was built between 293 and 303 in Jordan. Here is what their website says about it:

The oldest known purpose-built Christian church in the world is in Aqaba, Jordan. Built between 293 and 303, the building pre-dates the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Israel, and the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, West Bank, both of which were constructed in the late 320s. The church is the first purpose-built Christian church discovered from the period before Christianity found favour with the Roman imperial government. It even pre-dates the greatest of all the Roman anti-Christian persecutions, that of Diocletian in 303-313. The church, the ruins of which were excavated in 1998, is in the form of an east-west oriented basicila, with apse and aisles. It also had a narthex and chancel. Excavation has unearthed walls up to 4.5m 14ft 9in high. During its first phase the church would have held about 60 worshipers; it was later extended to hold about 100. The building appears to have been abandoned during the presecution of 303-311, then refurbished between 313 and 330. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 363.

There was a sort of “in-between” stage in which Christians set aside or remodeled houses for the exclusive purpose of praying and worshiping God. Christianitytoday.com tells us

Unless claims for recent discoveries of early Christian meeting places are confirmed, the earliest building certainly devoted to Christian use is at Dura Europos on the Euphrates River in eastern Roman Syria. It was a house that came into Christian possession and was remodeled in the 240s. Two rooms were combined to form the assembly room, and another room became a baptistery—the only room decorated with pictures. Dura was destroyed by the Sassanian Persians in 256, so the house’s use as a church was short-lived.

The church’s house at Dura represents an intermediate stage between meeting in members’ houses or other suitable places, and constructing buildings specifically for church meetings. There are literary references to separate church buildings from the end of the second century and through the third century, but it is uncertain whether these were existing structures remodeled for church use, like the house at Dura, or new constructions. We have archaeological evidence of halls being built for church meetings at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth century. The great era of church buildings began with Constantine’s patronage of the church in the fourth century. He commissioned basilicas to signal his support of the new religion and to advertise his reign.

It is true that Constantine’s legalization of Christianity in 313 led to a widespread construction of churches. This is true for several reasons. First of all, before Christianity was legal, there would not be much effort to build a church that was destined to be destroyed in short order. Also, funding for churches would probably have been directed to a different purpose in the Church, given their challenges with persecution and poverty. St. Helen, Constantine’s mother, was also responsible for some prominent churches being built. She journeyed to the Holy Land and helped organize and pay for churches to be built at the site of the Nativity of Jesus, the Ascension of Jesus, and possibly at Calvary, where Jesus died and rose from the dead. It is also said that St. Helen discovered the true Cross of Christ, which was still nearby the place of crucifixion. 

We are certainly blessed with many amazing churches as Catholics, including right here in Springfield! Our Cathedral, the chapel at the Evermode Institute, and Blessed Sacrament are all amazing places to pray and experience a special closeness to God through beauty. It is fitting that the largest church in the world is St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, built over the tomb of St. Peter, who was the leader of the Apostles of Christ.