Year of Marriage: Search of the Bride-Soul

"When the soul has arrived at this state all the acts of its spiritual and sensual nature, whether active or passive, and of whatever kind they may be, always occasion an increase of love and delight in God: even the act of prayer and communion with God, which was once carried on by reflections and divers other methods, is now wholly an act of love. So much so is this the case that the soul may always say, whether occupied with temporal or spiritual things, 'My sole occupation is love.' Happy life! happy state! and happy the soul which has attained to it!" - St. John of the Cross


It's the Year of Marriage!

Marriage is an absolutely amazing thing, and I'm saying that even without being married. I hope to be married if it's His will, and when I am, I'm going to dedicate everything in  my marriage to God our Lord, just like everything in my life should be (see last week's article). But marriage especially! God gave us marriage so that husband and wife might come even closer to Him by their uniting love for each other and their sharing in the creation of new life, the participation in God's act of creation out of love, and to raise their children for His glory, so that they can love God and be loved by God as well. And, just like almost everything else in the life of the Church, marriage between husband and wife is a reflection of something concerning God our Lord; The heavenly marriage of Christ our Bridegroom and His Bride the Church.

St. John of the Cross wrote constantly about the "bride-soul seeking her Beloved", and whenever he writes about the Beloved, it is always about Christ our Lord. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that husband and wife must submit themselves to each other just as Christ has submitted to His Bride the Church on the Cross and the Church eternally submits Herself to Christ her Bridegroom. The Church, the Bride, seeks after her Savior, her Beloved Jesus, wanting only to be with Him in complete love for Him, in the total giving of self to Him, and each of us have this desire at our core, often hidden beneath all of our desires of the world. So often desires only distract us from what we really are; the espoused of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Bridegroom, so we need to work hard at getting past those desires to what our soul really wants more than anything, what it searches for in everything around it but can only find at the foot of the Cross.

It's almost half a year since this blog was started, and I heard in prayer that now would be a good time to remind myself and others what it's all about, not just the blog, but life itself; falling more deeply in love with Jesus, loving Him more than anything and letting Him love us and others around us by our gift of self, all so that we can be with Him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, together with all the Saints and Angels and our Mother, praising God and living eternally in His love. We are the Bride of Christ, and we are being prepared our whole lives for the wedding celebration when we reach Him in Paradise, because what else is there that can make us happy?

So live and love as the Bride of Christ! Go out, especially after this season of His birth, to tell the world that the Divine Lover has asked us to be His own, now and for all eternity, and that "YES!!!" is the greatest thing we can ever do our entire lives.

All of you holy men and women and all of you angelic choirs, please pray for us, that we may always fall more deeply in love with Jesus our Lord and God!

Responsibility: Giving Our Life

"We are at Jesus’ disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that’s all right, everything is all right. We must say, 'I belong to you. You can do whatever you like.' And this is our strength. This is the joy of the Lord." - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta


Confession: I have never had a paying job. Neither have I gotten a license yet. I also have for most of my life spent a whole lot of time with video games instead of other more important things and people. Fortunately, I've woken up from all that, thanks be to God, our Lord!

This whole thing has come about rather quickly for me, mostly due to my parents' and my girlfriend's parents' talking with me about it all, as well as the encouragement from my girlfriend herself. Obviously that's not the main reason why I've decided to get on track after so much time; more than anything, I want to glorify Christ, especially since I haven't been doing so for so long. But I want to, I NEED to dedicate myself to Him more than anything, more than time spent with video games, time with friends, and especially time with my girlfriend, since I'm supposed to love her like Christ does, which will always include working for her good. However, again, this must be in the service of Christ our Savior, our Beloved King of Kings Who gave everything to us.

Responsibility is the key term here. It's the key term for the saints, the key term for all of the Church, it's what needs to be our main concern at all times. We owe everything to God, and though we'll never be able to repay Him for anything (that's why it's called mercy), we still need to work with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Luke 10:27), because love requires our own sacrifice, and we sacrifice by our work. Most of us have or will have jobs, we have chores to do, we have bills to pay, we have people to take care of, people to love, and of course the Almighty God to love more than anything. These are our responsibilities, and all the smaller ones are part of loving God. Taking care of the things that need to be done, especially if we do them not when they need to be done but when they SHOULD be done, is necessary to being His servant, which is what we should seek to be.

Obviously we all have things going in our lives everyday, most of which we can't control, and sometimes it may seem like we're prevented from doing our work one way or another. But there will always be things we can do for the glory of God, so that we can give our life to Him more and more, for He asks us to be servants so that we can be happy. Simple duties and bigger duties, all necessary, need to be done and worked at continually so that God can be glorified above all, so that we can be with Him at the end of our earthy lives, and so that we can love Him more than anything - that is our responsibility, simple yet the most difficult ever.

All of you holy men and women, especially St. Joseph, St. Josemaria Escriva, and St. Isidore the Farmer, tied to the prayers and intercessions of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, please pray for us and for the whole world!

All of you readers, please pray for the writers of this page, for each other, and for the whole world!

Love: What is Happiness?

"For love to be real, it must cost - it must hurt - it must empty us of self." - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta


It's been a month and a day since the last post; please forgive me! It's also unfortunately been a month or so since I've been to Confession; please, please, please pray for me!

I haven't written anything in so long because I haven't known what to write about. Obviously this might be a little strange, especially since we're in the season of Advent, we're in a new liturgical year on marriage which I'm sure you all know by now that I love to write about. But up until now I didn't know what to write about. I asked in prayer, I thought constantly for a while about things I could write about, I racked my brain countless times, and still nothing came... But!

Today has been both a very difficult and a very blessed day for me.It's been difficult because of a situation I found myself in, and even though it's mostly resolved now I still don't quite know what to do except pray about it and offer it up at Mass. However, that's exactly the same reason I'm incredibly blessed today! I was allowed by the grace of God our Lord to love someone today, someone who was very upset and confused, and I'm hoping in God that I helped them somehow, that I loved them properly. Even though I still don't know what's going to happen regarding the situation, I know a few things that make me amazingly happy; First, I know there's nothing to worry about, because God has it all handled. Second, I know that prayer is always 100+% effective! Third, I know that I should always continue to be happy because, as goes my username on here, I have hope in Christ. The One Lord Jesus Christ, God become Man, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Who died for each and every one of us, loves me even as I am a sinner, even as I can't seem to love Him, the Father, the Holy Spirit, or people around me properly, and really... God is the only One I can get that love from, the only One Who can make me happy, because He wants me to be happy. So I have hope in Christ because He's the only one I can have hope in, in the glory of God the Father and in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know how to love others properly, I really don't. I don't know if anyone does except for God, Who is Love. In fact, any love that we can give for others is only possible by His grace, by His love flowing through us! This is what He wants, that we "love our neighbor as ourselves"(Mk. 12:31), because only in His love can we be ever happy. We can often think, "I don't know if I love this person anymore, what do I do?" But this thinking is ignorant of what love is; the willing of the good of the other for the sake of the other. This is Who God is (it's a Mystery, I wouldn't try to understand it), and it's who He calls us to be for Him and each other. This is where our earthly happiness may be found; in loving God, in loving others, and, necessarily, knowing that we are loved. "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

I remember a great quote from the movie "Karol" about Pope Saint John Paul the Great, where he's speaking to his ethics class about happiness. One boy asks, "Why do some men act like wild beasts, while others sacrifice their lives for those they don't even know?" and a girl in the class replies to him saying, "People are bad because they are scared and unhappy." Wojtyla tells the class, "Now, there's an interesting subject; happiness and unhappiness, deep down inside each one of us. Descartes: 'Man is in the middle between God and nothingness... And he must choose.'" I feel like the point of this is to show that God is the only source of happiness, God Who is Love. We need to love God and be loved by God, we need to love man and be loved by man, accepting the love of God and the love of man which comes straight from God, or else we will never be happy. God wants us to be happy!

Please pray for the writers of this blog, and please pray for each other!

All of you holy men and women, and all of you angelic hosts, with the intercession of Mary the Mother of God, and St. Joseph her most chaste spouse, please pray for us and for the whole world! Amen.

Relationships: No Need to Worry

"There is no place for selfishness—and no place for fear! Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice" - Pope St. John Paul the Great


I have a problem that I've needed to work on for my entire life, not only in relationships but in everyday situations; I worry almost constantly. It's partly due to my anxiety disorder, partly due to my constant thinking and inventing ridiculous theories about things I never need to worry about in any way, shape, or form. But I've always noticed it's especially prevalent in my relationships with people, especially my girlfriend. I even worry about making her worry from my worrying! See how ridiculous it is?

But there are two things that are incredibly important that I often forget; First, I've been commanded not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34, John 14:27, Philippians 4:6-7, etc.). Secondly, I have nothing ever to worry about (Psalm 56:3). Both my Lord, my Godly Beloved, and my girlfriend, my mortal beloved, tell me not to ever worry, especially concerning my relationship with them. But why have I been commanded this, and why don't I need to worry? Why don't any of us need to worry?

St. Paul says in Hebrews 13:5-6 that "God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you'", and the Church repeats this constantly to the world with all of its problems, and that does and will always include romantic relationships, and since God should be the center of every one of such relationships, He will never forsake us in them either. Whenever I worry, it's mainly because I don't know the future, whether it be the close one or far off. But I know I'm never going to know the future (unless I'm given the gift of prophecy, but only as He wishes), and so God tells us, commands us to never worry, because His will is above all of our thoughts and hopes, and His plans are so inconceivable by us (Isaiah 55:8, Jeremiah 29:11). We never need to even think of what might lie in the future except for asking God to will what He wants for us, because He already has everything perfectly planned.

But aren't there still things I'll worry about even if I've been commanded not to? Of course there are, it's inevitable that I will worry about things. However, just like my girlfriend and my Lord both say, and just like I'm sure couples tell each other constantly as reassurance and hear in prayer together, there is nothing to worry about. There are always going to be things people need to think, talk, and pray about together, especially couples, things about the past, the present, and the future together, but those things have been taken care of, are being taken care of, and will be taken care of by God's grace, mercy, and love, and while we may have the part of saying yes to His invitations, that is all we need to make sure we do, because how can we do anything else when everything else is outside of our power?

Whenever I have a day of excessive worrying (just recently in fact), I realize in the evening and night time that all my worrying has been for nothing, and is usually just caused by something silly like not having enough to eat in the day or not enough water or a stressful test or essay that day, and I'll remember at that point that my girlfriend often says to me that she doesn't see any point in worrying. No good can come of worrying, and it'll just lead to not trusting God and others as we should. Though it sometimes seems like there might be something good that could come from it, we need to realize that there are things we can do, in relationships of all kinds, to prevent worrying and to prevent the things we might be worried about. Pray together at least every week, every day if you can, even just for four or five minutes, go to Mass together, go to Adoration together, ask for blessings from priests and deacons, and, of course, talk together and discuss things, even if it seems scary sometimes. These are the things that have a point to them, these are the things that good can come out of.

So don't worry, because our Lord God Almighty already has everything planned perfectly. Instead of worrying, ask Him separately and together to do what He wants, because it's better than anything we can think of or do by ourselves.

St. Padre Pio, St. Dymphna, St. John of the Cross, Pope St. John Paul the Great, and all of you holy men and women, and all of you angelic hosts and choirs, please pray for us! Mary, our Immaculate Queen and Mother, please intercede for us and obtain for us the graces to trust in God our Lord!

All of you readers, please pray for each other and for the writers of the blog!

Contemplation Series: A Dulled Blade

"Not all the faculties and senses have to be employed in things, but only those that are required; as for the others, leave them unoccupied for God... The soul that desires God to surrender himself to it entirely must surrender itself entirely to him without keeping anything for itself." - St. John of the Cross


First off, I'd like to apologize to all the readers of this blog as it's primary writer. It's been close to three weeks since the last article, and that would normally be unacceptable. However, the reason that it's been so long is twofold, and I would like to share them with you all so that any confusion can be cleared up. First off, my family moved just recently, and I've been preoccupied with it enough to stall writing. Secondly, recently in prayer when I've asked for something to write about in this series on contemplation, I've been told that I should be patient and wait for something more important than usual that I can specifically relate to and write about. So here we are! (Special thanks to Father Ed Fride, pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, MI.)

In one of his most recent homilies (I believe it was the one for All Souls' Day), the pastor of my parish, Fr. Ed Fride, talked a bit about the contemplative life and its connection to Purgatory and to the cleansing of the soul in preparation for Paradise, for being with Christ, with the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for receiving the infinite outpouring of divine love from the Most Holy Trinity our God. He talked about how one of the main facets of the contemplative life is the giving up of all the external things, even the pleasures, for the sake of receiving more of the love of God into our hearts. These things, which include internal things like sensual and sexual pleasures, desires for things, even things we know to be good, and pleasure gained from them, are external by the fact that they can very easily distract us from what should be our true happiness; God alone.

In fact, there's a song that goes by the same name that I hear every so often, which in fact is this poem:
God alone! God alone!
In your courts, O my Lord, is my home!
You are my treasure, my portion,
delight of my soul!
My life, my salvation, my fortress,
my God and my all!
O my soul, claim nothing as your own!
For you, there is God,
and God alone!

God should be our all in all, our everything, for God is all we need. St. John of the Cross writes constantly about the importance of having our senses dulled so that we won't be distracted by them, for how can sensory pleasures compare to God Himself, He Who is Everything Good? St. Augustine writes in "Confessions" about the dangers of the senses; "And so the general experience of the senses, as was said, is called the lust of the eyes..." Our senses are of course good, for they are the tools God has given us so we can experience life and the world around us. However, they are not a good in and of themselves, they are not an end, nor is the pleasure we can gain from them. Rather, they serve us so we can experience things and by experiencing things we can come closer to God. Our only true happiness should be in Him, because He is the only one who can provide that true happiness.
In conclusion, the main point is this; Although most of us will probably not be living a contemplative life in a monastery, or even simply as a priest or in religious life, we all need to be careful with our sensory experiences, and bend them to God's will. Married, engaged, and discerning to be married couples should take care especially in the physical and emotional areas, while priests and people in the religious life, although certainly able to be distracted by the above areas, should take care in the other areas which might be stronger from the absence of the above areas. Of course we should never view the senses themselves as bad, but living in contemplation, living with a constant desire for God alone, requires that the sensory experiences are the least of our problems and pleasures.

Miss Walter's Words: Enjoy the Silence

"Contemplation is nothing else than a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love." - St. John of the Cross 

    I am not strictly an introvert or an extrovert. I am what is classified as an “ambivert,” meaning that I am both. I love to be around people, but I also need quality alone time to be by myself and recharge. Almost all of my friends are strictly extroverted, which can be difficult to deal with at times. It can be puzzling or even frustrating to them when I act really quiet in public or decline invites to hang out just because I’d rather have the time to myself. It’s not because I’m sad or trying to avoid them — I just need to recharge!

    So… what does this have to do with spiritual contemplation?

    I’ve noticed that it is difficult for so many of us, in a world dominated by extroverted expectation, to embrace the quiet, introverted sides that we all have. In this silence is where God wants us to seek Him. By simplifying our loud, busy lives and embracing a prayerful silence that so fervently begs to be heard among the cries of a million earthly responsibilities, we can open our ears to His voice and spiritual promptings.

    It is probably easier for introverts rather than extroverts to understand this concept. By definition, extroverts typically do not like to spend time alone reflecting when they’d much rather be out socializing or doing something fun. Calming down and setting aside time to pray and reflect may even seem alien to those who are not used to it.

    Based on personal experience, here are some techniques for all personality types to test out in order to incorporate spiritual contemplation into their everyday lives. I encourage you all to give them a try. It may be difficult, especially at first, but I encourage you to persevere for a significant amount of time in order to see if any of these techniques benefit your life and your relationship with God. Even if you do not find these methods helpful, I hope that they spark a new spiritual perspective on contemplation in your everyday life.

1. Simplify your schedule

    Although this is the most difficult step to take, it is an essential leap towards a more spiritual and contemplative life. Start by praying for guidance from the Holy Spirit in order to find gaps in your schedule to insert quiet prayer time. Personally, I like for prayer to be the last thing that I do in a day, so I usually have a 45-minute block before I go to bed in which I have reserved for meditation, scripture study, and quiet reflection.

    Social media and electronics in general should be put aside at least an hour in advance of bedtime or quiet time (which doesn’t have to be right before bed!) This may make me sound like an annoying parent, but many scientific studies have been done that prove how electronics stimulate the brain like crazy, making it hard to wind down. In fact, science isn’t even necessary in this case to prove how electronics affect us! Just look around, especially at the younger generations — our society is full of citizens with potential who are growing less and less productive because they are too distracted by the shallow concept of social media and screen-to-screen communication as opposed to face-to-face meeting.

    Without going off on an extreme tangent, I will simply put it this way: there are so many things that distract us in our daily lives that can be removed. Distractions vary from person to person, but we all suffer from them. If you notice something in your life that is keeping you from reaching your goals, or equally importantly, blocking you from personal time with God, get rid of it or at least try to lessen it. Ask others to pray for you so that your eyes are opened to the changes that need to be made for your own improvement.

2. Embrace the silence

    Silence is not something to fear! I know too many people who are almost afraid of spending time alone and try so hard to avoid the thoughtfulness and contemplation that silence alone brings. I’ll say it again, do not be afraid of silence! There is so much you can learn about yourself and about God from spending time alone in the quiet.

    The way I have observed it, there are a few different types of silence in which we can quiet our minds and our lives to hear the Lord. We should try to embrace them all, for spiritual and mental health.

    The first kind is basic silence, or simply just allowing yourself to be. In this silence, you are not actively searching for God or trying to rummage through your thoughts for meaning. You are simply opening your mind to whatever decides to pass through it. This can be used to clear the mind after it has been busy for the entire day. In a way, you are allowing yourself to enjoy the silence and prepare for prayer.

    The second type of silence is a prayerful, meditative state. In this silence, you are actively praying to God, or allowing yourself to stay open to however He wants to speak to you. Praying the rosary or reciting a mantra are some forms of prayer that can be used to bring a person into a meditative state. Both are very repetitive, yet are an extremely powerful expression of the soul through which the person praying can bring their focus to the power of God which resonates so deeply within us. It is difficult to describe just how this form of prayer works, but for those in deep meditation, its power is very real.

    The third type of silence is a free-flowing, soul-spilling method of prayer or scripture reading. Often times when it is hard to talk to God, or there doesn’t seem to be much to say, many people will resort to this method. This type of silence captures two extremes of prayer. From both ends of the spectrum, this is the “talk to God” method. Whenever I hear that phrase, I think of a person standing with Jesus, simply talking to Him. They aren’t reciting prayers or scripture, they are merely having a conversation with Jesus. Sometimes when our lives are a mess and we are so desperate to hear God’s voice, we will plead desperately to him in our own words. This is one extreme, when we are at our lowest, and we have lost all control and are in dire need of God’s voice in our lives. The other extreme is when we feel detached from God at certain points in our lives. We may be bored, or even lazy, and not know where to start with our prayer. At this end of the spectrum, we are not really sure what to do, so we try to “talk to Jesus” in an almost literal sense. This is a rambling, often unstructured prayer that is unsure in nature. Alternately, some people may even just crack open a bible and read whatever page they land on. In sincerity, this can be a form of prayer too, if the reader is paying attention to and taking to heart what the scripture says. Overall, this is a basic, yet still important form of silent prayer that can be used in a multitude of situations, and especially if they're opening themselves to listen to God while reading.

     While praying, if you find it boring just sitting, staring at a wall or closing your eyes, allow outward expressions such as drawing, painting, or even writing to take place if any of those come naturally to you. You can even take a walk or do yoga while you pray, since these forms of movement often help the spirit to connect with the body, and even help some to be more focused on prayer. Contrary to the ideas of some, meditation and prayer can take place even when you are actively doing something!

Contemplation: Every Chance We Get!

"Disengage yourself a while from earthly care, and give yourself for a time to think of God, and to repose a little in Him. Then, having closed the door of your senses, say with the affection of your soul: O Lord, behold I am in quest of Your lovely Countenance; teach Your poor servant how to find it." - St. Augustine


At the end of some days each week, I think to myself, "Huh. I haven't really talked to my Lord yet today, have I?" Now I might have talked to Him in the morning of the day and at night before I go to sleep, but I realize at some point sometimes that I haven't really talked to Him, talked to Him with a more personal attitude enough in a day, or at least not enough. Obviously it's never really enough, both for us and for Him, for as Saint Augustine says, "our hearts will not rest till they rest in Thee". It is never enough for us while we're still here and not with our Lord in Paradise.

So what can I do to get more time to speak with Him? What can we all do? Sometimes it feels like we never have time to talk really personally with Him, like we can only do the memorized prayers at specific times in the day that we've set aside. This is obviously a good practice to do, but we also all need to talk with the Lord at other, more random times. To get to know Him better, to fall more deeply in love with Him, and to devote ourselves completely to Him, we need to talk with Him every chance we get, especially when we think we're too busy with something. Saint Francis de Sales once said, "Everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we're busy - then we need an hour." In our kind of world where so many people feel the need to be doing something at every moment, we need to pray more and more often as we get busier, for how else are we going to be able to do the things we need to do?

However, I'm not only saying that we need to take even small bits out of our day at random times, though that is good to do. We also especially need to pray during everyday activities like homework, working at a job, walking, driving, waiting for someone somewhere, anything! We need to talk to our Lord whenever we can, even if it's just thanking Him for the day so far, for the people around us, and even just for small things like a lunch. And don't just thank Him and be monotonous; talk to Him like a best friend, because that's what He is for us. Talk to Him like the most beloved person in your life, because that's what He should be always and everywhere. Talk to Him on the bus, talk to Him in the car, talk to Him in class and/or at work, talk to Him every chance you get, especially the chances you think you don't have at first.

Saint Augustine, in his "Confessions", wrote "You were with me but I was not with you." Our Beloved King of Kings is constantly waiting for us to start a conversation with Him, to even simply say, "Hi, Lord! Thank you for today!" We so often simply go through our day without talking to the One Who wants to have our day be a day of love, a day when we can be given more and more to Him, coming closer to His love where we can finally rest, and we need it. We all need to talk to the One Who loves us beyond words, beyond anything, because how else can we know what His will is and how we can go about doing it? What better way to know how to love Him than by talking to Him every minute of the day?

All of you holy men and women and all of you angelic hosts, please pray for us! Mother Mary, please obtain for us the graces necessary to go past our laziness and talk with Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ!

All of you readers, please pray for the writers of the blog!

Contemplation Series: The Hidden and Silent Place

"We must remember that the Word, the Son of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden in essence and in presence, in the inmost being of the soul. That soul, therefore, that will find Him, must go out from all things in will and affection, and enter into the profoundest self-recollection, and all things must be to it as if they existed not. Hence, St. Augustine says: "I found You not without, O Lord; I sought You without in vain, for You are within." God is therefore hidden within the soul, and the true contemplative will seek Him there in love, saying, 'Where have You hidden Yourself?'"  - St. John of the Cross, 'Spiritual Canticle of the Soul'


I was reading Saint Augustine's "Confessions" recently, and something that struck me was this pervading sense of passion for the Lord Jesus in all the words of Saint Augustine. As he is a saint, this is obvious, but unlike the normal idea of passion as loud and explosive, the passion of Saint Augustine and all the Saints for Christ is a silent, calm burning of love, and although the Saints were always the most outgoing about Jesus, talking about Him and barely, if any, about anything else, they sought him not only in the people they loved, but also in their secret moments with Him, the moments in "the hidden place". It is a place of silence, of listening, of relinquishing oneself to the love of God that He is eternally and infinitely pouring out for us, asking us to join him at the still waters (Psalm 23:2) where He waits for us with eager expectation, just like we long for Him always and everywhere in the deepest part of our hearts.

The problem most people have when they learn about the importance of the hidden place where God awaits them is both knowing where it is and getting there. In Saint John of the Cross' "Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ", the Bride, the soul, cries out in pain, "Where have You hidden Yourself?" The soul seeks its Beloved but doesn't know where to find Him, searching at first in the places of the world, and then in the places made for God, and then finally, knowing no other place to look, the bride-soul looks into itself and sees at last its Beloved Lord. Christ told us that He is always with us (Matthew 28:20), and we ourselves are temples of the Holy Spirit. So it is within us, in the depths of the soul, that God rests, that the Beloved awaits us.

Although we know where He is now, actually getting there is the true challenge. Saint John of the Cross continues to write in the same Spiritual Canticle that the bride-soul, seeking the Beloved in the depths of itself, must give up its desires for everything else, for everything that does not lead it to the Bridegroom Christ. This is one of the most difficult, if not the most, challenges we have today; giving up things that do not lead us to Christ. There are so many distractions around us that stop us from growing closer to Him and even some that take us away from Him! These are things we don't need in our lives, in our seeking our Beloved. These are things that will never make us truly happy, so why should we keep them? This is how we can be still, quiet, and silent, by giving up our distractions even for just a few minutes every day and taking time to simply listen to our Beloved Jesus and be in His presence.

Obviously, we're not all called to live in a monastery somewhere, and in fact I'm guessing most of us are not. But it is of the utmost importance to live with the calmness that comes from being simple, from seeking the secret, hidden, and silent place. The Chris Tomlin song titled, "In the Secret" has as its chorus, "I want to know You, I want to hear Your voice, I want to know You more. I want to touch You, I want to see Your face, I want to know You more", because it's all about knowing and being with Him more, loving and being in love with Him more and more everyday, and the best language of lovers is the pure silence between them.

St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Jesus, Pope St. John Paul the Great, St. Augustine, and all of you holy men and women and angelic hosts, please pray for us!

Contemplation: A Series!

"Yes, dear brothers and sisters, our Christian communities must become genuine 'schools' of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly "falls in love". Intense prayer, yes, but it does not distract us from our commitment to history: by opening our heart to the love of God it also opens it to the love of our brothers and sisters, and makes us capable of shaping history according to God's plan." - Pope Saint John Paul the Great


It's been three months since the last series, and for that I apologize as the writer of this blog. There have been less and less articles each month, and I hope and pray that will change. In everything, especially with this, God's will be done!

Autumn is here, and with it comes a certain melancholia that begins to pervade everyday life, a tiredness that enters our hearts and brings a soft silence. In  this world of constant actions and words, with movies, music, Facebook and other apps, texts, and so on, a lot of the time it feels like we never have time for silence, or, even worse, that silence is somehow a bad thing. We want so often to be doing SOMETHING, and so often this detains us from the importance of silence, of contemplation.

When most people think of contemplation, they think it's a sort of simple introspection, a looking at one's inner thoughts and trying to understand their meaning. However, we, as Christians, are not called to focus on our own thought, but instead on the thoughts of our Lord: "How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17) We are called to speak with our Lord whenever we can, especially in the silence of our hearts, in what Saint John of the Cross calls "the hidden place". That place is where we should go to in prayer, where we may talk with God freely and lovingly.

This series will focus on going to that place, living in contemplation even in everyday life, finding our way especially in the silence and darkness, and, through all of that, loving, giving ourselves, to our Lord Jesus Christ, to have Him, as a great friend of mine once said, as the love of our life.

Miss Walter's Words - Service: A Personal Sacrifice

"The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist." - Pope St. Gregory the Great


“If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.”

This quote is perhaps my favorite one from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. It speaks such a profound truth, one that (unfortunately) many Christians do not like to admit to.

Some of us, myself included, often times try to convince ourselves of the illusion that we can be true followers of Christ and live a comfortable life at the same time. Sure, we can read the bible, debate theology, wear symbols or our religion, and proclaim our love for Jesus to our neighbors, but we must keep in mind that, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26). We are all called to devote our lives to Christ, but we also must act upon our faith. In this discussion specifically, I am speaking of active, face-to-face giving of time, talents, attention, counseling, and/or other services to the poor, sick, and others in need.

It is easy for so many of us to just donate money to a charity and call it a day. But God wants so much more from us! He wants us to treat the poor as our brothers and sisters by getting to know them and showing them that we care by their actions. This calls for personal sacrifices in our own lives to be made, in order to give to those who really need our help. We are called to know the poor by name, to make them feel loved and to prove to those that look down on them that they are dignified just as much as the rich are through Christ’s love for them. This action of reaching out is such a powerful sacrifice of self-giving. So many Christians feel that it is too time consuming or annoying to help the poor. Others don’t feel that it is really an obligation. However, Jesus set for us so many examples of how we should help those in need through the gospels. Many saints devoted their lives to helping the poor as well. It is very humbling to reach down to those in need, and also helps us become more Christ-like.

Think about how blessed you are. I am particularly thankful for my parents, my safe neighborhood, a bed to sleep in, and food on the table. Regardless of where you live, how much money you make, or what you've been through, you still have an excess of blessings, whether physical or spiritual or somewhere in between. In this excess you must find ways to help others that are in need — even if you must search far and wide for an opportunity. Jesus calls us to go the extra mile in finding ways to serve his people. If we really want to improve ourselves and become more like Christ, we must find ways to be actively charitable, even if these ways “pinch or hamper us.”

Relationships: Being an Extravagant Reflection

"We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God and as an object of His love."

 - Saint Vincent de Paul

The Church teaches, and Scripture teaches, that man is made in the image and likeness of God; "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness," (Genesis 1:26) Obviously He did not only make man (Adam), but also woman (Eve), and He made us that way for a couple purposes, especially being found in the marital act. The Church teaches that the marital act has a twofold purpose; unity, husband and wife being united in one flesh (Genesis 2:24), and also procreation (Genesis 1:28), husband and wife taking part with God in the creation of new life. Along with the actual marital act, there is the parental duty of raising the children in a life lived for God alone. 

However, we must also understand the divine implications of the marital act and even of the love between a couple even before marriage (however, it's realized and understood fully in marriage); the love between a couple, especially between husband and wife, is a reflection of the love of God, for God, Who is Love, is a communion of Persons. With this, we understand the most important thing in any relationship; to be someone through whom God's overflowing love can flow to the other person, to lead the beloved to Christ through your being a reflection of His love for them. In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul commands this reflection when he writes, "As the Church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her". For husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, they must be a conduit for His love to flow through, and it is the same for wives, For God, Who is Love Itself, is passionately in love with each and every one of us, and He has made the bond between men and women, learned about in our interaction with one another and realized especially in marriage, able to show His love for us, His Bride.

Of course, it's not just in marriage, in romantic relationships, that this can be found. Any kind of love between people, actual, agape love, is reflective of our Lord's love for us, as well as reflective of the love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However, the love of the Trinity can be clearly seen in marriage, when husband and wife love each other, and the outpouring of their love begets another person, just as the Holy Spirit is the procession of the love between the Father and the Son. Yet even before marriage, couples should seek to be the reflection of this love for each other even though they should not yet do so in the conjugal and marital act, for they aren't yet completely bound to each other yet. There are different ways that each couple can do this, of course, but most important are praying together, reading and/or discussing Scripture together, going to Mass and Adoration together, and encouraging each other in all spiritual matters, for it is in the ways that we grow closer to our Beloved Lord that we most grow closer to each other.

Again, the point is that those of us who are called to marriage and are courting are called to be reflections and conduits of our Lord's love for each other. Anyone can be that for anyone at any time, of course, but it's especially important in such a personal relationship like a romantic one leading to discerning for marriage, for in marriage is found that greatest reflection of God's love. But we are called to be so even at the beginning of a relationship, to be a sign and giver of His love for the other, for our beloved, for this is how relationships can bring us closer to our Lover of Lovers.

All of you holy men and women and all of you angelic choirs, especially Pope Saint John Paul the Great and St. Raphael the Archangel, please pray for all of us who are called to marriage!

All you readers, please pray for the writers of this page and for their vocations! 

The Sacrifice: What is Love (Feelings Don't Hurt Me)

"Faith... Is the art of the holding onto the things your reason once accepted in spite of your changing moods." - C.S. Lewis

Today, on this Sunday, the 21st of September in the year of our Lord 2014, literally the most incredible thing ever happened. I, along with so many others, physically, actually, and completely received GOD HIMSELF in the bringing forth of the greatest act of love ever; Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross, His giving His own Body and Blood to us.

And yet, when I went up there and received the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Savior of the World, the Heavenly Bridegroom espoused to us by the Father... I didn't pay much attention to it. I went up as usual, like almost every Sunday, to receive Love Himself, and I didn't pay much attention to it. I noticed it right beforehand and right after, that I was in a sort of automation and have been so for a while now. It's not that I've necessarily done something wrong, although that does contribute a lot to being distracted from this greatest event of all time; It's my own mood that's changed. I don't know how, and I don't know when, but somehow I've slipped into a sort of "going-through-the-motions" mood, though I never wanted it. I've asked God before today, today, and I'll probably continue asking Him to get me out of this, but all of my begging comes to nothing. Thank the Lord that it does!

You see, although we're obviously called to live passionately for Him, to be completely in love with our Espoused King of Kings, we're not called to any sort of "feelings" about it. To love our Lord Jesus Christ, to "seek Him while He may be found", must be done even in automation, and, in fact, being trapped in that sort of phase can be revitalizing in a sense. I want to go to Mass, I want to receive my most precious Lord, I want to pray, I want to go to Adoration; yet perhaps I expect something back from all these, some sort of pleasure for myself, some great feeling of joy. There are certainly times when He gives me joy especially in these times and places, most especially at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where I may receive His Body and Blood, but the joy isn't that important. It's my serving Him, my coming to Him at the Sacrifice, my actually praying, my going to Adoration, all of these to be more and more given to my Beloved Jesus that is important. 

So though I may feel automated right now, and it is frustrating and sometimes almost depressing, I know I still need to keep doing what I'm doing for His sake as long as they aren't sinful or near the occasion of sin. I know I need to pray more, I know I need to read Scripture more, I know I need to live in the Spirit more, and a lot of other stuff, but now that I've asked, in the words of the amazing man of God, David Mangan, "Where's the dynamite?", I don't need to worry. I need to do go to Mass even when I worry it won't seem the best, I need to pray when it doesn't seem like I'll be answered, and I need to do all the things He asks of me, because that is how I may love my Lord; doing what He wants even when it feels like I'm not getting better. As long as I do what my Beloved asks of me, He will bring me through all the different moods I'll have to Himself, to live in His love. Until then, may I serve and love my Espoused King of Kings all of my days, and may I be thankful that I can still serve and love Him even in such an automatic mood.

All of you holy men and women and angelic choirs, please pray for us and for the whole world!

All of you readers, please pray for the writers of this page!

Passion: A Burning and Loving Purpose

"As to the Passion of our Lord... Never in anything follow your own will and your own inclination, for that was the cause of His death and passion."  - St. John of the Cross


When most people hear the word, "passion", they often tend to think about 'passionate encounters', the kind you see in bad romance movies or in contemporary T.V. shows (unfortunately). Those things are all about the emotional fires that spark when two lovers meet, although this is usually not what happens in that kind of situation. However, these products of our emotion-driven world do have a small part of truth that, although small in these, is of incredible important: Passion is like a fire, a fire that can consume everything if lived with incorrectly. But if lived with correctly, according to its purpose, can bring two true lovers together in a stronger bond than before. The perfect and most amazing example of this is history's most famous act of passion: The Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word "passion" comes from the Latin verb "patere", which means "to suffer". Passion for something or someone means suffering for that thing or person, giving oneself completely, life and, in the case of our Lord and His martyrs, death sometimes. In our present times, people focus a lot on "feeling passion", feeling that rush of living for something or someone more than anything/one else, and it ends up consuming them in a flash-fire a lot of the time, turning their life upside down. A lot of wasted time is spent trying to keep that "passion" going so we can keep feeling the rush. But this isn't what real passion is: Passion is suffering for the beloved, it's sacrificing for them, just like our Lord did for us, and it's meant to be lived with continence, with caution and purpose.

When our Lord Jesus took up His Cross, and even before that when He endured the crown of thorns and the beating and the scourging, He was living passionately for both the Father and for us, and it wasn't a quick consuming flash-fire; it was His suffering for His beloved, living and dying for our redemption. His suffering up to and including His crucifixion were how He lived out His love for us and the Father, and it was how the Father was able to draw us closer to Him in love. It was the most important and perfect thing He could do for us; "No greater love has one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" John 15:13. Christ lived and died for us in the greatest act of love that was possible, not in some cheap and quickly-extinguished way, but in His entire life and death.

So the question is: What should we do as the Bride of Christ? We're obviously called to be passionate about Him, about knowing Him and serving Him, but how? Most of us probably won't die for Him like He did for us, like the martyrs did for Him, but we were all made with our own ways of living for Him. I write poetry, friends of mine play music, others were given the gift of evangelization, and others still with other gifts. Yet there is a common rule in all of the ways that we have to live passionately for Him: Living, sacrificing, SUFFERING for our Lord God should, above all, be for Him alone.

We often get distracted by a lot of other things and people, and often we can have that rush of burning emotions for them, but we can't really live for them fully, because they can't fill our lives fully. However, God can, and in fact, He wants to! Because of this, He enables us to live and suffer for Him in fullness, to live truly passionately for this One Who we should live our whole lives for, in the purpose of falling more deeply in love with Him and serving Him more and more.

All you holy men and women, especially all you martyrs, please pray for us!

Melancholia: Going Through Depression

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy." 
- St. Francis


It's September now, and in the U.S. this means autumn is coming soon, and with every autumn comes a seasonal melancholy feeling, at least for me. Sometimes people think it's depression, and sometimes they're right. Lots of us struggle with depression, and it's never easy. Even when people tell me, "Don't worry, God will get you through it", I still have that dark feeling of anxiety lurking around for quite some time. Living with anxiety disorder my whole life has never been easy and it never will be. However, that's not what's important: Living this cross of mine, this cross that my Lord Jesus Christ has given to me, is the whole point, because it's by this cross that I've learned to love like He does, and how I've learned to love Him more and more every day.

Especially in the autumnal season, I reflect on my past and become both sad and joyful, sad about all the friends I've lost, all the people who I've seen suffer unjustly, all the people I've seen leave their Beloved King. I'm joyful for all those people, though, because He put them in my life for a reason and He had them leave for another reason, and He let the suffering happen so they could grow stronger, and He let them leave His side because He loves them so much that He respects their free will. And even though the melancholia begins to kick in and may last for a long time, I still thank my Lord that He sent the people and situations to me so I could be His. When we reflect on the past events and people in our lives, we should always be trying to understand what place they had in His plans for us.

Of course, anxiety stuff does still come around plenty of times, and it's not going to stop. But my worries aren't really important, I've found. In the very least, they're a reminder of something that depression makes us forget; trusting in our God is always so necessary, especially when we feel like we don't need to or shouldn't. And there's a perfect reason to trust in Him; He's already got everything set up in His plans for us. I know it's cliche to say not to worry, but it's really what's necessary, because there's no need to! Our Heavenly Bridegroom has already set up the wedding feast, so why should we worry ourselves with pointless things? Although I do find joy in the memories of the past, they still really only serve as a guide for the future, of my place in His will, and of Who brought me home and will bring me back to His side. Though I'm still anxious a lot of the time, I keep learning to trust in His will, because that's where I'll find my way through the darkness of depression and into His light of love.

All of you holy men and women, especially Saint. Dymphna, patron saint of anxiety, please pray for us!

All of you readers, please pray for the writers of this page!

Labor Day (Late): Working in Dryness

"The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist." - Pope St. Gregory the Great

This past Monday was Labor Day in the U.S, and since then I've been asking both my Lord and myself whether I labor properly for Him, for His holy will. I've been feeling recently like I'm in a state of spiritual dryness, and this has left me anxious and wondering if I'm actually able to do His will right now. I feel like I'm in no state to come closer to Him because it seems like He's so far away from me. Yet today I've begun to realize why this is complete tomfoolery, utter nonsense and extremely detrimental to myself and to others.

A good friend of mine has always told me that feelings don't matter in faith and works of faith, that feelings don't matter much in real love; this is completely true! I said above that I 'felt' a spiritual dryness, that I 'felt' like I'm not in a proper state to do His will, and these feelings have only served to increase my anxiety. However, when I actually think about what I'm able to do for His will, completely by His grace alone, I realize that I can always do His will, again by His grace alone. Obviously if I'm in sin, then I'm less open to that grace, but feeling a state of spiritual dryness doesn't necessarily connote sin. Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said that, in the later parts of her life, she felt as if God was nowhere near her. St. John of the Cross describes this state as a "dark night of the soul", a time when God lets the soul experience dryness so that the soul can be moved to love again, to desire and to laboring for the Beloved. A dark night of the soul is not at all an excuse to think one can't do His will; it is, in fact, an invitation to work more!

The invitation to work more by our feeling this dryness, by our realizing our anxieties, these dark nights, is necessary for our growth in love. Yet though the feelings do help to trigger it, they are, as said above, nearly unimportant, only serving as the trigger. What 's always more important in these dark nights is our response to them by our seeking to labor more and more in love for our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself up for us even in the greatest suffering, Who Himself said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Even in that pit of despair, Christ, the Son of God, cried out, wondering where His Father was. However, He still died, He still resurrected, and He still ascended and is now seated at the right hand of the Father who He cried to; He still did His work, He still labored in and after the suffering. So it's the same with us: We must not only know of the invitation, we must take it up to work for His will.

St. John of the Cross, in his writing on the dark nights of the soul, says that they're necessary for the soul to grow more in love with it's Beloved Christ; "In tribulation immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction." We're going to have dark nights of the soul, it's inevitable, and our Beloved Bridegroom allows them to come so that we can search for Him, work for Him, by our feeling away from Him. By our feeling dryness or even despair, He helps us to labor to be more and more in love with Him.

Relationships: Pray Together. A Lot.

"Without Prayer nothing good is done. God's works are done with our hands joined, and on our knees. Even when we run, we must remain spiritually kneeling before Him."
 -Blessed Luigi Orione


Today was a very special day for my girlfriend and I: It was the first time we prayed a Rosary together (also, I was using a rosary she had made me, which is totally awesome."

I'm sure there's at least one person reading this who is now saying, "Huh?... How is that romantic at all? What was so great about that?" Hopefully there isn't and I'm wrong, but nonetheless, I'll address it just in case.

First off, it's not supposed to be, at least not between me and her. It's supposed to be a romance between us and Christ, especially through the intercession and love of His and our Queen and Mother, Mary most holy. It's always supposed to be about the passionate and completely self-surrendering of ourselves to Christ, no matter who you're praying the Rosary with. In fact, that's especially the case if you're praying it with someone like your girlfriend/boyfriend, fiancee, spouse, or anyone else who might distract you by their mere presence. We always need to be careful to keep the focus on our True Lover, our Heavenly Bridegroom, our Spousal King of Kings. Except by His overpowering grace, I would not be able to focus on my Lord because of my joy of being with her, but thanks be to God for His grace! Now I'm not saying that you should avoid praying with someone like that, quite the opposite actually! Obviously we should be careful in everything we do, especially praying with a loved one like a girlfriend/boyfriend, fiancee, or spouse, but that care should be taken so we can focus on the One Who has brought the two of us together to glorify and serve Him by our showing His love to each other, especially in prayer. Pray together over and over, as one of the main things or THE main thing the two of you do together, obviously according to the other's pace, but pray together! A lot!!

Secondly, it absolutely can be incredibly romantic (again, not the point, but merely an added bonus from the Lord)! I was once reading an article from a new subreddit on Reddit titled "r/CatholicDating", and one line that struck me perfectly went something like, "You should hopefully be with a girl that will find reading Aquinas together romantic." Now, obviously not everyone will have that kind of personality, especially for St. Thomas Aquinas, but the fact of the matter is that prayer, reading Scripture and the Saint's writings (St. Augustine?), going to Adoration and prayer meetings, and especially going to Mass together are romantic in a specific way: You're both helping each other to come closer to the True Lover, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Heavenly Bridegroom wants us to come closer to Him in the ways He and the Father and the Holy Spirit have planned and set up for us, especially the person you're in a relationship with,  because what could be more romantic than loving your beloved like God does? Some might be saying, "But what about flowers? Or dinners? Or something else that ACTUALLY SEEMS ROMANTIC?" Well, let me ask you this: What're the points of those? Aren't they to make the other person happy? And aren't the Holy Mass and the other things above the best way for someone to be happy?

Once again, that's not the main point. However, going to Mass, to Adoration, to prayer meetings, reading Scripture and the Saint's writings, and praying together are literally the best ways to love someone you're in a relationship with. I'm not saying that having dinner together or going on dates of any other kind are not good; they are, they're spending time to love each other by that time spent together. But, in ranking of importance, prayer and other spiritual activities, especially going to Mass and Adoration together, are by an infinitely large margin at the top. So pray together. A lot!

Pope Saint John Paul the Great, please pray for all of us, to live our relationships as our Divine Lover intends. Mother Mary, please obtain for us the graces necessary to live like that, especially those of courage to do so, and fortitude to stay in the habit! Amen.

Miss Walter's Words on the LSR: Christ's All-Encompassing Mercy

“How happy am I to see myself imperfect and be in need of God’s mercy!” – St. Therese of Lisieux

If you recall, last Sunday’s readings were Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; and the Gospel was Matthew 15:21-28 (USCCB.org).  In summary, the first reading calls us to “Observe what is right” and “Do what is just” by becoming God’s servants and obeying his commands. The Psalm response is “O God, let all the nations praise you”, and the Psalm itself calls to God to “have pity on us and bless us”. In the second reading, Paul tells the Gentiles that God is merciful and will save them if they turn away from sin and disobedience. “The gifts of God are irrevocable”, he writes, to accentuate the permanence of God’s mercy in the face of their wrongdoings. Finally, the Gospel shares the story of the Canaanite woman who begs Jesus to have mercy on her daughter, who is possessed by a demon. Jesus does not answer her plea the first time, says that he cannot help her because she is not an Israelite the second time, and finally answers her plea the third time by responding, “O woman! Great is your faith. Let it be done as you wish.”

The readings that I will focus on this week will be the last two. This past weekend I visited a parish in New York State. The priest there was an older man, white haired, his face looking tired and weathered under his thick-rimmed glasses. His speech was knowing, yet somewhat bored, signifying that he’d been saying masses for quite some time. When he went to give the homily, I wasn't sure what to expect, but he kept his words short and sweet, and his ideas really stuck with me.

What I absorbed from the homily were the ideas of unexclusiveness and persistent faith. Throughout Scripture, we constantly see groups of people mentioned. Israelites, Canaanites, Gentiles, Jews, etc. and often times, especially in the Old Testament, God acts a certain way towards those people. We sometimes tend to focus on how prevalent God’s wrath is towards certain groups of people (such as His flooding of the Earth in order to get rid of the unrighteous in Noah’s day) which can be frightening. However, when we read the second reading and the Gospel, both talk about God’s mercy extending out to people who are of all different backgrounds. In the Gospel reading, the woman who is a Canaanite is granted mercy by Jesus, even though she was not a Jew. In Romans, Paul speaks directly to the Gentiles, and delivers a message of hope to them that they may be redeemed by God’s mercy, even though they're not Jews either. These passages display the idea of unexclusiveness; that God is so merciful and loving that He chooses to save all people willing to accept him, not just one chosen race.

Though this is great news, we must be willing to persist, as the Canaanite woman had when asking Jesus to heal her daughter. Sometime when we pray, it seems that God isn't listening or isn't there. However, just as in his first exchange with the woman, Jesus had listened to her plea but hadn't responded. Although Jesus tells her in another response that he has only come to save the people of Israel, he really sees how faithful she is when she persists even after that comment. From this story, we learn that Jesus is willing to reach out his hand to ALL who ask and persist in faith when they truly need help and truly believe.

As a call to action, I would like us to focus on the unexclusive mercy that God sheds on us. No matter who we are, how badly we've sinned, where we come from, or how discouraged we are, we can be saved by God’s grace. I pray that we can share this love with ALL of our neighbors, so as to become more like Christ!

Miss Walters' Words on the LSR: Introduction to the New "Last Sunday's Readings" Column

(The introduction to the new weekly posts by Miss Jennifer Walter, an amazing young woman of God!)

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." - St. Jerome

Hey all! To introduce myself, my name is Jennifer and I am a friend of Joe’s. I am Catholic, and constantly trying to become more rooted in my faith every day! As an experiment, I am starting a new column (if you can call it that on a blog) called “Last Sunday’s Readings.” Every week, sometime between Monday and Friday, I will be posting a new article about my reflection on the readings from the most recent Sunday. I do this for two reasons: first of all, because I am quite the procrastinator, and second, because I like to give time for my ideas to float around in my head and collect detail until I feel ready to sort them out and write them down. My reflections are based off of homilies from priests, my own personal meditations, and most importantly, the readings. I will try to summarize a connection or realization about two or more readings, but if something is on my heart about just one, then I will write about it.

(Joe here – All readers, please pray for our new writer!)

Friendship: With Friends Like These

"Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul." - St. John Bosco


The saddest thing I've ever had to know took place in my first semester of college. Yes, you new freshman read right; my first semester of college. That seemingly magical time when you're meeting all sorts of new people, new personalities, new thoughts and lifestyles, new creeds, new friends and, unfortunately, new people who would rather not be anywhere near you. One of the sad facts is that, especially in this first new time, they're pretty interchangeable. The drama from high school might be over, but the new stuff is even worse. It's the toughest part of going into college, more so than any class, even organic chemistry and molecular biology! The saddest thing was not having true friends, friends in love with the Lord Jesus, near me, pushing me. Those who had been in the beginning either left His love later on or simply gave up.

But this isn't meant in anyway way to create worry, anxiety, or distress! In fact, the message is quite the opposite!

With every new step in life come new friends, new people to open ourselves to, which should of course entail opening our faith and hope and love of Christ to them. Perhaps they might not accept it, or maybe they might be lukewarm about it and not really care much. Or perhaps they are seeking after truth right when you meet them, and they'd like to know more! Maybe, by the grace of God, you've just met someone or will meet someone soon who is already totally in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, someone who can help you and you can help them grow closer and closer to Him. God works in mysterious ways, and the friends we have share in that work, and we for them.

The challenge is in finding those friends lastly described above, those companions who will never abandon us to fear and despair. The true friends are like Samwise Gamgee, refusing to let us fall, carrying us to where we need to go when we can't walk there ourselves, loving us as God loves us by sacrificing their own time and talents, themselves, for our sake, and we need to do the same for our friends, as well as our enemies. St. Thomas Aquinas once said, "There is nothing on this earth to be more prized than true friendship." If you look at the saints, they all had true friends who pushed them, who helped them walk, who carried them closer to Christ. St. Francis had St. Dominic as his companion, St. Augustine had friends like St. Ambrose and St. Possidius who helped him come to Christ, and in fact it was St. Ambrose who baptized St. Augustine and his son!

Seek after the people who God is trying to make more important in your life, those Godly companions who will remain with you through the trials, who will help carry you to Christ, who will help you carry your cross, who will push you and rebuke you because of their desire to see you perfected in Christ the Lord. And, of course, do the same for them, love them like God loves them, for Christ told the Apostles, "I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me." (John 15:15)

St. Edith Stein - "On the question of relating to our fellowman – our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is the end already, since God is love."

Sts. Augustine, Ambrose, Possidius, Thomas Aquinas, Francis, and Dominic, please pray for us all, that we may all find, keep, and love the companions the Lord God has sent and will send us!

Readers, please pray for the writers of this page! Thank you!

Working in Love: Fight Against Idleness!

"Either we learn to find our Lord in everyday life, or else we shall never find Him." - St. Josemaria Escriva


St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord Jesus, was a carpenter. A man of a simple lifestyle, even for that time period, one who lived by his work as a craftsman and builder. He never says anything in all of Scripture, and perhaps it's because of his simple lifestyle as a carpenter that this is the case. Obviously, some of the Apostles and early Saints came from simple lifestyles, and one can say that they still did even after the followed Christ, going from place to place in plain clothing, not taking very much with them usually. However, St. Joseph wasn't called to be an apostle, a prophet, or an evangelist. Rather, he worked tirelessly to raise together with Mary his foster son, the Son of God. And though this in itself is the greatest of his service to God, St. Joseph still offered all of his laboring to Him, never remaining idle or in bored laziness. This is truly a man of God, and both men and women should pay attention to his unceasing devotion to giving all he was to the glorious will of his foster son. Even now, he prays and intercedes for us, ready to obtain for us the graces necessary for us to selflessly and tirelessly serve God in everything we do.

In this day and age, with cell phones, video games, the ever-expanding and ever-interconnecting internet, and all of the noisy and constantly changing events around us, we might fall into a rut when trying to do His will; getting distracted by all the things around us and forgetting exactly what we're trying to do. I myself have a 3DS, and had bought a new game for it recently, playing it almost obsessively and having almost all of my thoughts on it, even though I know that God is trying to tell me things He wants me to do! He's always trying to tell all of us something that He wants us to know or do, and He doesn't ask much of us. God, the Lord Almighty, is constantly shouting to us how much He loves us, how much He wants us to be completely given to Him, and also the ways He's wants to do so, the things we can participate in for His will. Yet we focus so much on the ever-shifting newsfeeds, the newest articles on our favorite reddit pages, texting someone to try and pass the time, and even with all of these, so many people are still so bored!

We, as a society, have become idle. We spend our time trying to get out of boredom, and then we complain that we never have any relaxation, and so we try to get ourselves bored again. When we know it'd be a great idea to pray the Rosary to come closer to our Mother Mary, or to read Scripture to know Christ better, or to evangelize to someone, we often think to ourselves, "Ah, I'll get it done later", and later keeps becoming "later" until one day we decide we just don't care anymore. However, look at St. Joseph: Working tirelessly all the time, never stopping from giving glory to God in His labors, never bored and so never idle, always living a life for God. We need to imitate St. Joseph if we are to live our lives for God, never ceasing to listen to what He's telling us, never letting our desire to relax become important than the will He has for us. And like St. Joseph, we must do so in the everyday things, the simple lifestyle that we all still have as at least a part of our normal lives, giving everything we do to God, not just the big things.

Because that is what love is: Never stopping to serve the beloved, never stopping to do everything for their sake, never giving in to laziness and boredom in this chaotic world. We need to love in everything we do in our daily go-abouts, to love through the plain words we speak and the actions we do, especially by putting away the distracting things for other, purposeful things, for prayer, for Scripture, for acts of mercy and evangelizing. We need to live "the working man's" life, just like St. Joseph.

St. Joseph, St. Josemaria Escriva, and all you holy men and women, please pray for us!

All you readers, please pray for the writers and editors of the page!

Feast Day of St. Dominic: Speaking of Desire

"You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you." - St. Augustine, Confessions

Happy feast day, St. Dominic! Thank you for all your prayers, especially for those who have been called to the order you started with your friend and companion, St. Francis! You preached the Good News with such amazing fervor, and you shared the gift of the Most Holy Rosary with everyone! You desired God above all, and your great rule to live for Him alone has brought so many closer to Him! Keep us in your prayers, great Saint!

St. Dominic's rule, although technically from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, is amazing, especially since it's incredibly challenging: "Speak only to God or of God". This is not only difficult in itself, but is especially difficult in the culture we live in today. Everyone loves to talk so much nowadays, and sometimes we can get nervous and anxious when we're not talking. We love to hear ourselves talk about even the most inane things, topics and ideas with no purpose. So often we desire only to listen to ourselves, to talk about everything and nothing at once, to blather on and on about worthless things.

This is not what we were made for! 

We were made to desire  only one thing: the love of God, the Most Holy Trinity. To hear the Father's Word, the Lord Jesus our Heavenly Bridegroom, in the grace, power, and understanding of the Holy Spirit. We were made to listen to He Who is talking to us constantly, trying to get all of our attention so we can hear His message of eternal life and love. In this culture, we focus so much on ourselves, maybe on others, but our desire is so often on the temporal and the imperfect. We talk about pointless things, trying to pass the time, but we have been made, most of all, to be in love with this God Who is Love Itself. Wouldn't you rather listen and talk to your Divine Lover rather than the things of the world?

In this relationship with our loving God, we have been commanded to go out and tell the whole world the Good News of His life, death, and resurrection, to shout out the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ Who gave Himself up for us. Therefore, our speech must be bent and bound to that command, to His holy will, ready to proclaim the love of God wherever we go. However, this won't be possible for us if we do not desire our Lord and His Word above all, if we don't desire to listen to Him above all! Our desire must be the chain around our speech, to "speak only to God and of God", for how else can we live for Him completely if we're focused on other things? 

In conclusion, let us, by the grace of God, dedicate ourselves, especially our speech, to desiring only our Beloved in Heaven, and to run and tell everyone of Him, not wasting time on pointless conversations and environments that might distract us from our command to shout His Gospel! Let us be completely in love with Him and tell the whole world in the fervor of the Spirit, just like St. Dominic did!

St. Dominic, St. Francis, and all of you holy men and women, please pray for us and for our speech!