Suffering: Schooling and Battling

“The greatest greatest honor God can do for a soul is not to give it much, but to ask much of it." - St. Therese of Lisieux

In school, we are taught lessons on different subjects of academia; hard sciences and soft sciences, languages, grammar, literature, history, mathematics, philosophy, humanities, artistry, music, and others. We receive grades based on our performance; if we act responsibly and do a good job, coming to class and completing and turning in homework as well as participating, we receive a good grade, and if we act irresponsibly, not doing our work, cheating, not showing up for the class, being lazy, we receive a lesser grade. School is a meritocracy, and the system is used to teach us both the academic knowledge and how to act responsibly, especially through our mistakes.

Suffering, any kind of trial, is the same. The trials we go through and the pain we endure is one of God's ways of teaching us the things we need to know, the things we need to come closer to Him. In this relationship with the One Who loves us beyond words, we are bound to make mistakes because we are fallen. Yet this is how we are best able to learn what He wants of us. Our mistakes will cause pain, not only for others but also for us, and by His mercy God helps us to learn from that suffering if only we will accept the schooling, however hard it may be.

By our suffering, we learn to be Christ's more, and because of this, it is those who suffer the most who can be His greatest servants. Saint Ignatius of Loyola once said, "If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings." Suffering, especially the suffering we cause ourselves by our acting irresponsibly and away from God's holy will, is our chance given to us by Him to learn and be more and more His, to be a saint doing His holy will.

Our poor marks show when we are in trials, and yet we must never fall into despair, the sin that cannot be forgiven, because it is our rejection of God's mercy because of our disbelief that He will forgive something we've done. This is the worst kind of suffering, when we cut ourselves off from His mercy by our fear that we can never go back because of our mistakes, because of our sins. Yet this is where He wants to teach us the most, in the dark pit of despair that almost everyone will go through at some point in their life. This is where He can teach us the most, because it is here that we are most vulnerable, most able to be forged anew after being smashed down. To think of ourselves as weapons that God has made that have been chipped, worn down, and even broken by the constant battling against the enemy allows us to understand that He forges us anew all the time, and makes us even stronger in battle by that reforging, which is only possible if we become chipped.

Our suffering in any trials we face allow us to learn from our mistakes, to be reforged after being broken in battle, to stand stronger again, pulled up by our Heavenly Commander, even after falling in the bloody mud. The Lord Jesus Christ pulls us out after letting us fall because His mercy is infinitely more than enough to save us from despair, even the despair we created ourselves, so that we may fight stronger than before. Fight, my brothers and sisters, fight the good fight of faith stronger every day!

St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us soldiers of the Most High God in constant battle, that we may stride and charge forward with all our might, gifted to us by our Beloved Commander, to fight against despair. Amen!

Evangelization Series Wrap-Up: All Together Now!

“By your work you show what you love and what you know.” – St. Bruno

The evangelization series has ended on this page.

Fortunately, our command to evangelize never ends! We are always called to do God's will in every way He wants whenever He wants, to be completely in love with Him and to bring others to be the same!

There were four articles in this series, and in each of them we writers of the page were hoping to share something incredibly important to do God's will. Each of the themes are important to interacting with others to call them to God their Lover.

First, joy is necessary to interact with a world that has lost its true joy, it's hope, it's wonder. To sing, smile, laugh, to dance, jump for joy, to live in God's happiness is so crucial to telling and showing others the love of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's what everyone both wants and needs.

Second, carrying our own crosses is always necessary, because it is the main way we show others the love of Christ, the Son of God Who died on the Cross for all of us. The trials we go through, the pits and peaks we cross, everything that comes our way; God can and will keep us safe and strong, able to keep carrying the cross we've been given!

Third, serving the poor and the needy, the despairing and the lonely, is our command, and unless we live in a contemplative monastery, it is how we carry our crosses; for others. God always desires so much to have His love be received by all of us, not only in the Eucharist, Scripture, the other Sacraments, but especially through our works and service to others, especially those who need it the most.

Fourth, as we serve and work, we must always be prepared to share the truth of the Lord Jesus with anyone who seems to be seeking it. We must love truth and live it for the sake of helping to bring ourselves and others to Truth Himself, for that is what humans desire more than anything: To live and love in and for Truth, even when they run away from Him. That's where we come in, as God's messengers of truth!

So, as we are commanded, let us live out all of these in love for the sake of God's passionate love and glory!

Evangelization Series: Knowing and Showing Truth

“The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

First of all, I just want to say that everyone, and I mean everyone, should read St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Bernard, and all the Doctors of the Church. Seriously. They were so amazingly blessed by God, especially in their writings, and it's always just so amazing to read what the Holy Spirit helped them to write. The knowledge of God and of the Church and how to live and love for Him is always amazing, and reading them is almost necessary to live more completely for the Lord God, especially when bringing other people to Him, whether they're new to it or if we're helping to bring them back home.

The Church has always known how difficult it is for people to accept truth, especially Truth Himself. It's an inherent trait of being fallen, of being away from Truth Himself, that we shy away from any kind of truth, from what is real, from what our natural faculties, grounded in natural law, are directed towards. It's difficult for everyone, although less for people who come closer to God, and it becomes easier to know truth as you come closer to Him, in direct proportion. It's what we were made for, and even though we're fallen, it's what we still seek in our daily lives. We want to find truth, and yet we don't want to be anywhere near it. Like always, we, as humans, live paradoxically. 

As those who try to know, live for, and love Truth Himself, the Lord God Almighty, we are obligated and in fact commanded to share His Truth with everyone, both those who know it already and those who don't. To live this out is required of us to come closer to our Beloved, our Bridegroom Who calls us to Himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in complete trust and surrender to Truth. The way we can live it out is by showing and sharing the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ with all those around us, even when they want to go away from it. With this command, it's necessary for us to first know truth, to live and love it ourselves The truths in Scripture, the truths of Sacred Tradition, the truths taught by the Magisterium, and the truths we can come to know by logic that lead us to truths about God. This is why it's so important to read the writings of the Saints, why it's so important to study the teachings of God revealed through His Bride the Church. Those who we meet who we want to bring to Christ will ask us questions, and we must be prepared to meet them in full capacity in order to do His will.

Of course, not only is knowing these truths required, but living them is even more necessary, especially to show to the people who we want to be given to Christ. Although "practice what you preach" is a cliche phrase, it is so often forgotten. We may tell people these things we know theologically, but if we do not live them then there is no point, and people will begin more and more to see hypocrisy from those who act as such, and the masses of the people latch on to even the smallest acts of hypocrisy like a starving leech. So we must always live for the Truth we know, not only to be more and more His, but to give others more and more reason to be His. In conclusion, we must know and live out truth for the sake of Truth Himself, the Lord God, to come closer to Him and to bring others closer to Him, and while we as fallen humans run away from truth, we still have the God-gifted drive to seek after it with our full force, and we who know Truth must be prepared to share the truth of the Lord Jesus' redemption and the hope of His salvation, of His love.

All you Doctors of the Church, please pray for us and for those who do not know Truth yet!

Evangelization Series: Working in Mercy

“If we let Christ reign in our soul, we will not become authoritarian. Rather we will serve everyone. How I like that word: service! To serve my king and, through him, all those who have been redeemed by his blood. I really wish we Christians knew how to serve, for only by serving can we know and love Christ and make him known and loved.” - St. Josemaria Escriva

There's a community kitchen in my hometown where everyday people in the city serve food and drink to the poor people coming in every day. Volunteering there is always amazing, and seeing the happy faces (and also the downtrodden ones) of the folks getting food is an amazing thing, and the volunteers working there, including myself are always overjoyed at being able to serve these people who may not be able to get food any other way. In fact, I always used to see that as my "reward". This, however, is a certain strike against God that everyone must always be cautious of.

The Lord Jesus, in His life, always helped the sick, the sorrowful, the afflicted, and the needy, and told His disciples to always do the same. Because He is love, He always did this for the good of the other, whoever it was, and like the Apostles, we are always called to do so as well; to be beacons of His love by our work in serving others. However, when we do so in the mindset of, "I'm helping these people, Lord! I'm being such a good person because I'm loving them!", with their joy as our "reward", we distance ourselves from the purpose of our serving the needy and the afflicted: To do God's will for His glory, and to come closer to Him by doing so. The problem with the "rewards" of service to the poor is that we may start to glorify ourselves for our work, when really all we are doing is allowing God to love the people we serve through our work. 

Serving the poor and the needy is necessary to enter the Kingdom of God, and there will always be poor people (Matthew 26:11) and the needy. To serve them is to do God's will for humanity as a whole, and by glorifying God for the ability to do so is a sure way to bring them and ourselves closer to God, once again all for His glory. Along with glorifying Him though, we must remember that in working for His will, the most necessary thing to receive from God and show is mercy. Not mercy in the forgiving sense necessarily, but mercy in giving ourselves completely for the beloved of Christ, as in, everyone, especially the poor and the needy. We are required to show His mercy to everyone, to give His mercy to everyone, to love everyone as He loves them by our service. St. Augustine's famous quote, “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like" describes perfectly what our work must be like.

One snag that many good servants of God fall into though is the notion that "the poor and the needy" are only those you'll find in a soup kitchen, a hospital, or an old folks' home. Blessed Mother Teresa puts the truth perfectly; "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty." Those around us who may be depressed, feeling left out, outcast from social groups, and all those who are afflicted, not necessarily in material or bodily terms, but rather in emotional, spiritual, and social terms are crying out for and need as much, sometimes even greater, love and mercy as the monetarily and temporally poor and needy do. Our work and service to them is always required of us, and it is always an amazing opportunity to glorify the God Who loves them and died for them.

In conclusion, our service, done so in a spirit of mercy by the power of God, Whose love flows through us to the people we serve, is always necessary to bring others to Him, and it must be done so in joy and in sacrifice of ourselves to them and the will of our Lord God. St. Augustine once said, "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." We have been commanded to work and toil to bring everyone to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and by doing so we glorify Him and come closer to Him.

St. Joseph, please pray for us, that in our everyday work, as well as our service specifically to the poor and the needy, we may glorify God and bring others closer to Him by willing their good!

Evangelization Series: Carrying Your Cross

"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 of Assisi

(Written by Dean Kovac, a great man of God!)

I will never forget the talk Fr. Donald Calloway gave at the discernment weekend conference. It also helps to mention the giant Lord of the Rings sword he was wielding in his hand. “Every knight has their weapon; it’s the sword.” Then flipping the sword upside down he exclaimed, “Every priest has their weapon, it’s the cross. Jesus is on one side and you have to be on the other. It’s not about numbers or money baskets; it’s about the salvation of souls.  We have to speak the truth even if your congregation is willing to crucify you.”

You might ask yourself, what does this have to do with evangelization? Evangelization is about proclaiming the Gospel to souls, especially and unfortunately to those in our own pews. But before we can go proclaim the Gospel, we have to know it, we have to live it, and we have to love it. The new evangelization has to start within our own hearts and souls, to become true disciples and followers of Christ.

Jesus tells us, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24)

The cross is essentially the total gift of self.  The cross shows us how madly in love with us God is. As C.S. Lewis said, “The incarnation is likened to a man becoming a slug.”  But not only becoming a slug but dying for slugs so that they may share in “man’s nature.” No human person would do that.  But God, Creator of the stars and heavens, in His radical love for us was beaten, insulted, scourged, humiliated, tortured and crucified naked on a tree, died for us that we could share in His Divine Nature. My brothers and sisters, this is the perfect love of God. 

 We must embrace the cross, for it is through the cross and our participation in the cross that souls our saved.  Our mission is to go out to the world and make disciples (Mt 28:19).  It is our great commission by Christ.  It can be frightful, hard, and difficult.  But by growing in our faith, by growing in love with Jesus, all things are possible, because perfect love casts out all fear (1Jn 4:18).

So let us embrace the cross, and make sacrifices for sinners.  Our Lady of Fatima said, "Pray, pray a great deal and make many sacrifices, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and to pray for them." We proclaim the Gospel through the reflection of Christ’s love in our words, thoughts, and actions.  We must sacrifice for souls, not only just by prayer, but with fasting and other acts of penance. Through this, we will become instruments of spreading Christ’s love.  As Mother Teresa used to say, “I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”

(Please pray for the people in Iraq, both the Christians being persecuted and for the people doing it, that they may come to know the Lord Jesus Christ in complete and total love!)

Evangelization Series: Smile, Laugh, Sing!

"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love." - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta


I've just started to read a certain book this week, and I have to say it's near perfect. It describes the toughest things I can partake in, and yet it was written by a man of total 'mirth', as he'd put it. The book I've begun reading is titled, "Orthodoxy", and it was written by G. K. Chesterton, the goofy-looking man you can see to the right.

Chesterton was always known as a very energetic person, especially about defending the faith! He reminded people in his writings of the need for "mirth" as a defense against insanity, against the modern philosophies which placed total importance in "logical" thinking that were gaining increasing popularity at the time. Chesterton, in his Catholic faith, knew that alongside logic, which itself is a good as a gift from God for us to be made in His image, people must possess the necessary defense against the skepticism logic can bring if used improperly: Joy. Total joy because we have a Savior Who loves to save, because we have a Bridegroom Who wants us to be completely His!

In telling people about Jesus, we cannot only have rational theology backing us up, or simply being excited. We need the joy He gives us about Him, the joy that is seen in people grinning largely whenever they realize they have a chance to tell someone about the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the joy that we can all find in Adoration, in confessing our sins and being absolved from them, in all the Sacraments, most especially in receiving our Lord Himself, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity! What else would be more joyous in this mortal life than to receive God Himself, Love and Mercy and all goodness Himself?

The reason it's so necessary is because people, especially youth, nowadays are so entrapped by the disparity of this fallen world, so much so that any joy they might have at one point is quickly forgotten in the crashing storms of trials and sufferings of each day. Everything is rushed nowadays, and because of that people feel distraught in the midst of it all, not sure where to turn. This is not what the Lord wants! Instead, in their sufferings, and outside of them, the Lord God wants everyone to seek Him through that with a feeling of joy from the chance to seek after Love Himself!

Joy is so necessary because people desperately need it. Everyone is hungry for more and more joy in their life, in what they say and do, who they are and will be. So to bring them closer to Christ we need to have that joy ourselves, so that they can see Who is giving it to us!

So don't just be happy about the Lord Jesus; be joyful! Be ecstatic, be impatient to get to Mass and the Sacraments, always be open to the joy God gives you so you can be a sign to others, as well as because of the happiness it gives you, which makes Him happy! Be His lover, excited to bring others to Him every day!

Saint Paul and all you holy men and women, please pray for us, that we can be on fire in the joy of God to show to others that such joy is possible!

Evangelization: A Series!

“May you also be true evangelizers! May your initiatives be ‘bridges,’ means of bringing others to Christ, so as to journey together with him,  And in this spirit may you always be attentive in charity.  Each individual Christian and every community is missionary to the extent that they bring to others and live the Gospel, and testify to God’s love for all, especially those experiencing difficulties.”- Pope Francis, Homily, May 5

Evangelization: It's necessary.

Not only to get people to meet Jesus, or to get them closer to Him, but because He commanded us to do so it's also necessary for us in order to come closer to Him ourselves. By spreading His good news, the news of His life, death, and resurrection, the news, simply put, of His infinite, sacrificial, completely endless love for every single person, we ourselves come closer to Him by doing His will.

Saint Paul knew this for sure, traveling all over the Roman world to tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ, about His redemption and the salvation now possible. He endured a lot of trials everywhere he went, all for the sake and glory of Christ. This environment is the same for us today, especially in this postmodern world.

So the question is... How can we do Jesus' command to bring the world to Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit? This series will hopefully help to answer this question! Stay tuned and enjoy!

St. Paul, and all of you holy men and women, please pray for us!
(Please, all of you readers, pray for the writers of this page!)

Praise and Worship: Serenading our Beloved!

"Liturgical worship is given a more noble form when the divine offices are celebrated solemnly in song, with the assistance of sacred ministers and the active participation of the people." - Sacrosanctum Concilium Paragraph 113


My parish is so blessed to have something amazing that every parish should have and actively encourage: Praise and worship prayer nights.

If you've never been to a praise and worship prayer night, it's a gathering of people to join in praise and worship of the Lord, especially in singing, and prayer ministry is hopefully usually included. Singing is done to uplift the hearts of all those gathered to help hem to praise the Lord God, and many times people are baptized in the Spirit and start praying and singing in tongues, sometimes there are words of knowledge and prophecy!

It's absolutely amazing, and in a way, necessary in today's world, especially for the youth of the Church. Today's youth are so heavily influenced by music and always at least impacted by it, especially if they're singing along with it. Because of this, praise and worship nights, having a lot of easy-to-sing-along music, are an amazing way for everyone, especially youth, to both view and partake in the power of the Spirit and a chance to fall more completely in love with the Lord Jesus Christ!

St. Augustine once said, "He who sings prays twice". Knowing how much we need Christ, to be His lover and to do His will, it's obviously good to sing to Him! In mortal relationships, people serenade each other (or at least used to) with beautiful love poems and songs. This is in a sense the same thing: We all have the desire to give ourselves to Christ completely, to be His lovers, and just like mortal lovers sing to each other, we want to sing all our hearts out for our Bridegroom!

At these praise and worship prayer nights, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are especially noticeable as people give themselves up more and more to the Lord their Beloved, and the music for His sake and glory is necessary to lift people up like that, to be open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So go to a praise and worship prayer night, and if there isn't one at your parish, find one somewhere or organize one, the youth need it! We have a desire to sing out for our Beloved, and this is where you can do so a lot! Everyone goes to be more and more in love with Jesus, and they want to praise Him in the best way they can.

Saint Cecilia, patron Saint of musicians, please pray for us that we can sing in the Spirit as you did and do now all for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Adoration: It's Necessary for this Relationship

"To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed, You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all. All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face."

- St. Teresa de Jesús

My parish is so incredibly blessed to have an Adoration chapel that is open 24/7 to anyone seeking Jesus. It is literally one of the greatest thing ever! The fact that anyone is able to go and see God Himself, the Lord Almighty, our Heavenly Bridegroom Who waits for us every day, at any time they want is absolutely amazing. In fact, it's necessary!

In any human relationship, especially romantic ones, one always feels the need to spend time with their beloved, and that need increases as the two become closer by spending that time with each other. It's never one-sided,but rather both people have decided to commit themselves to the good of the other other, and such love can definitely be done in the presence of the beloved. It is the exact same thing, except in Adoration the Beloved is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; Love Himself!

Because of this, Adoration isn't just spending time with Christ our Bridegroom, but is rather intended to be a total self-giving to Him in His presence, a complete surrendering of ourselves to our Beloved God whose Body we see whenever we go. He has given Himself up for us in total sacrifice and love, and the fact that we can go see Him so easily should spark in us a passionate sense of wonder and a painful desire to be with Him and talk directly to Him in the same room!

We all have a desire to speak with our Bridegroom, to simply talk and be with our King of glory, and Adoration is where we can. Obviously the Sacred Mass is where we are most able to, as we directly receive Him into us, but Adoration is still directly being with Him, basking in His glory and conversing with Him in the silence. Just like in any human relationships, we need to spend time with our Beloved to fall more and more deeply in love with Him, and after we do we're so much more able to go out and do His will! In fact, the time we spend with Him is directly proportional to the ability to love Him by doing His will, and so Adoration is not only desired, but necessary to be completely given to our Lord Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom Who calls us every day to spend more time with Him.

Because He loves us, and He wants to spend every second of every day with us. Even when we can't go to Adoration, we should offer up our works, thoughts, anything we say, everything we do, to our Beloved, and ask Him constantly to open us by everything we do to His love, and to fall more in love with Him, our King of Kings.

All you holy men and women, and all you angelic choirs, please pray for us, that we may come to Adoration in complete surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ, our King and Bridegroom of glory!

Relationships: The Whole Point

"Pure love... knows that only one thing is needed to please God: to do even the smallest things out of love - love, and always love." - 'Divine Mercy in My Soul', St. Faustina

Alright, time to talk about relationships. Don't worry, this isn't going to be one of those "You'd better not do anything bad, you hear me?!?!" rants, seeing as those usually make things worse in fact. I'd rather talk about something necessary for any relationship. In fact, it's not only necessary for a good, healthy relationship to form, but also necessary for any relationship to become better.

I'm talking, of course, about love. Real love. Agape.

In the original Koine Greek, agape literally translates to "love" in English. Philia, another type of love, translates to "friendship", eros to "cupid" or physical attraction, and storge to "affection". The  first person verb form of apage, which is s'agapo, translates to "I love you". This is a phrase people in relationships say a lot, many a time not fully realizing what they're saying. In contrast with the other three types of love, agape directly means "to love". While the other three can usually be seen simply as feelings or states of a relationship, agape is necessarily understood in the verb form. It is always an action, a person loving another, not simply just a feeling or such.

Now, you might be asking, "What does this have to do with relationships?" Well, this is where we have to understand the point of any relationship, especially romantic ones. In order to do so, we need to look at the Sacrament of Marriage. 

The Church teaches that in the Sacrament of Marriage, especially in the conjugal act, husband and wife are directed towards love, specifically that of the love of God, by their being united into one flesh and their cooperation with God in the act of creation of new life. Obviously the conjugal act is only good and truly realized within the Sacrament of Marriage, but understanding that allows us to know what romantic relationships are for in the end: Marriage, always marriage.

If marriage is directed to coming closer to the Bridegroom Himself by way of the love between husband and wife, that love which they direct only towards the other to bring them closer to Christ, and if dating and courting are directed toward loving the other, then it would stand that they are directed to the same thing as marriage: Getting the other person to fall more and more deeply in love with the Lord Jesus. And that is also why dating and courting need to be directed toward marriage, so that the man and woman can continue to work for the good of the other for God's will of love.

In the end, love is the point, just like everything else. In any romantic relationship, the man and woman should seek to do everything for the good of the beloved, just like God does for us and we should do for Him. This agape is necessary for the couple, and is truly understood when the love they have for each other is found in bringing the other person closer to Christ in every way possible. 

So go to Mass together! Pray together! Read Scripture together, go to Adoration together, read the writings of the Saints together! If you truly want the best for the other and, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "will the good of the other", then you should be bringing them closer to the true Lover, the Lord Jesus Christ! That is the point: To be their companion so He can love them through you, to make them better lovers of Him, and to give entirely of yourself and do everything for their sake, as long as it is the will of Christ.

St. John Paul the Great, please pray for all the young people that you called to live for Christ, especially in their relationships with one another, that they may always only seek the love of their Bridegroom, and through that lead others to Him as well!

Confession: Living a Relationship Well

"It is a beautiful thought, my children, that we have a Sacrament which heals the wounds of our soul! But we must receive it with good dispositions. Otherwise we make new wounds upon the old ones." - St. John Vianney


The thing I have found that most Catholics dread, no matter how many times they go to Mass, no matter how much they go to Adoration, no matter how many Rosaries, Chaplets, and other prayers they say every day, is unfortunately the Sacrament of Penance. So many of us nowadays come up with excuses to not go to Confession on a good basis, of which the usual one (and a poor one at that) is, "But I've done such horrible things, how can I go in there and tell someone about them?" Let me say right off the bat that this is both incredibly saddening to hear and also a point at which I always say, "Trust me, they've heard worse."

Confession is so absolutely amazing. Seriously. When you receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation in true contrition, you are being reunited to Christ in sanctifying grace! In fact, it is Christ Himself doing this through the priest who is in persona Christi! If you are in sin, wouldn't you rather be back with the God Who loves you and has forgiven you over and over instead of wallowing in guilt and shame?

Let me put it this way: Anyone who has ever been in a relationship, whether it's of a romantic nature or not, knows that we, being fallen, screw up a lot, as in, ALL THE TIME. People do very stupid things to others, and the loving bond between them is broken. This is exactly what sin does, especially mortal sin! But in any relationship, the people who done hurtful things, as well as those who were hurt, usually will want to repair the broken bond for the sake of continuing the relationship. This is exactly what Confession is about; coming to ask our Bridegroom, the One Who wants us completely in a loving relationship with Him, for forgiveness for hurting Him. 

Obviously in human relationships it takes the mutual action of all involved to repair the bond. However, with Christ one side of it is already completely forgiving and merciful, so that we are the only ones who really need to have the courage and active will to respond to His call to come back. Each and every time we have a chance to go to Confession, He's calling us to return home to Him, a bride returning to her Bridegroom to ask for forgiveness. 

Along with the actual act of returning to Him in contrition, we should prepare ourselves before we do so, just like a bride will first ask the family and friends of her Bridegroom to help her understand how she offended Him, will read about how to do so in a humble, nearly begging manner, as well as mull over what she has done to realize why she is returning. The Father, the Holy Spirit, Mother Mary, and the Saints are the family and friends of our Bridegroom Jesus, and Scripture (especially, in this case, the Song of Songs) tells us both how and why we should come back to Him. Finally, we should always make a daily examination of conscience to understand what we could have done better for Him every day! All of these allow us to truly come back to Him in a humble heart that is begging to be back in His grace again.

So go to Confession! A lot! Saint Padre Pio made sure to go to Confession at least once a week. If Christ tells us that "each day has enough evil of its own", then each week has more than enough evil to need Confession on such a usual basis. But we always need to remember that we're not going back to merely "be freed from evil and sin", but rather to be filled with His grace and mercy so we can love Him and accept His immeasurable love all the more. 

(For Scripture recommendations, try Luke 15 and Psalm 51, which are the Prodigal Son and David's "Act of Contrition". Pray while reading them! Also, ask Mary, the Mother of Mercy, to come with you into the Confessional so you can truly come back to our Bridegroom Christ even more than before!)

St. John Vianney, patron Saint of confessors, please pray for our priests that they may always be listening and speaking to those coming to Confession the words that Christ has for them!

Friendship: Christ's Command

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." - St. Thomas Aquinas


"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you..." - John 15:15.

This verse in Scripture is of incredibly great important (like the rest of it). It is here that the Lord Jesus tells the Apostles that, through all the trials, traveling, and ministering, and through all the signs He had already performed, through all the people whose sins He had forgiven already, through all they had gone through with Him... They could finally be called His friends. He finally accepted them as His dearest companions, and so they could from then on ask for anything in His name from the Father. Most importantly, He not only asked them, He commanded them to love one another, specifically in this new state of being His friends.

Friendship with God is, as St. Thomas Aquinas writes in the Secunda Secundae in his Summa Theologica, only possible by the gift of His own Spirit, Who is Charity Itself. It is by this giving of Himself that He enables us to be with Him on a personal level, which we always need more of, for sure! And by 'communicating' Himself to us, again and again He commands us to love each other like He loves us.

Obviously in this life people will come and go continually, so much so that we feel many times that we don't really have a chance to 'make friends'. But, in fact, God's command to us is realized incredibly well in the fact that life is fleeting. We seek great companionship, not only from God, but also from the others around us who we secretly, in the depths of our hearts, hope will lead us closer to our Lord, even as time goes by quickly. We suffer with them, we adventure with them, we laugh and cry with them! And so we love and love with them by being with them and sacrificing our time and giving our efforts for them. Christ has called us to do so every day of our lives, and in doing so to bring them closer to Him, our greatest Friend! At the same time, He calls on them to do the same for us.

In essence, true, loving friendship is that bond made between two people with Christ in between, steadily and mutually driving the friends to love God by their giving of self for each other, all for the sake of coming closer to Him by doing His will for the good of the other. Jesus commanded His friends, the Apostles, to do His will by giving of themselves to each other and to others, and so they became more and more His friends. In this fleeting life, we are called to constantly give ourselves courageously for the people we meet, even those we only know for a short while, to live sacrificially for them in hopes of showing Christ to them every day. "Greater love no one has than this: To lay down one's life for one's friends" John 15:13 We must give ourselves completely for these people.

So go live out this command! Lead your friends, all of them, to the greatest Friend, our Lord Jesus Christ, especially those who do not really know Him yet! There's so much work to be done in this fast-paced world, so get started on it as He constantly commands of you!

Lord Jesus, thank You for all the people You have placed in our lives for Your work to be done! Please bless all of them, even those who we may not see or know anymore, that they may always come to meet You, the One who gave Yourself up totally for us!

Saint Maria Goretti and Love in Purity

"Chastity is a difficult, long term matter; one must wait patiently for it to bear fruit, for the happiness of loving kindness which it must bring. At the same time, chastity is the sure way to happiness." - Saint Pope John Paul the Great



July 6th, two days after the July 4th when America celebrates her independence. What a coincidence that today is the feast day of a Saint so beautifully in love with Christ that she died at the age of eleven just for Him, to maintain her freedom by chastity in Him instead of being a slave to sin.

Saint Maria Goretti was born in Italy in 1890 to an increasingly poor farming family, and as such had no education, no chance to learn reading or writing, or any other privileges as such. However, her parents raised her and her other siblings deeply in the faith and in love of God, even in the midst of their struggles. At the age of nine, Maria's father died of malaria, leaving the mother and the other children to seek work as tenant farmers working for others. In time, they moved into a house which they shared with a family which included a man named Giovanni Serenelli and his son Alessandro. Though her mother, brothers, and sisters worked in the fields, Maria would keep the house clean, prepare meals, and sew for the two families.

On July 5th, 1902, Maria had been sewing a shirt for Alessandro and keeping watch over her baby sister while Alessandro and the rest of the family worked in the fields. Knowing she'd soon be done and alone, Alessandro went to the house and demanded Maria submit to him sexually. Maria, knowing this would be against her Beloved Christ, resisted, and Alessandro, in anger, stabbed her eleven times before he ran away. Though her mother, family, and Alessandro's father heard the screaming and took Maria to the hospital, she died of her wounds 24 hours after the attack, but not before forgiving Alessandro and asking God that he would end up in Heaven with her.

Saint Maria Goretti acted perfectly in love both in her entire life and at the end of it, living everything for Christ and dying as a martyr completely in love with only Him. Her refusal to submit to her attacker's demands because of the detachment from God it would cause was based around her love of both God and, through Him, Alessandro himself, as Maria had told him he would go to hell, which she did not want for him. In the entire trial, she remained pure for Jesus, and so was even able to forgive her attacker, praying that he would learn the same purity in Christ, as that is where true happiness lies by living for Him.

By living chastely in Christ and remaining such through staying true to His will for us, especially in how we live this bodily life for Him, we are given the grace to love as He loves; in a selfless, merciful, and total way, just as Saint Maria Goretti did. In living in purity, both physically and spiritually, Christ teaches us to love for His sake, for His will, and so to love especially those who might be living in slavery to sin. The freedom such purity in Christ brings us is the necessary state in which we love Him and others.

St. Maria Goretti, please pray for us, especially those who are struggling with purity, that they may instead live only for our Lord Jesus Christ in complete purity and the freedom that brings in Him!

The Catholic Romantic

"Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice,

and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there

is no love." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

"What a strange title this blog has!" You might be thinking that as you read this first article for this new blog. I've started this blog this Sunday after having been to Adoration (it's awesome, go sometime soon), because, as I got reminded of the other day, I need to tell people about love. Specifically, the love of Christ and the love He allows us to have in Him. 

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. 

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 

Who loved me and gave Himself for me." - Galatians 2:20

At heart, I am a writer and a poet for Christ, and before those, I try to be a lover of Christ, as His Father calls everyone to be. The Church is the Bride of Christ, the Bridegroom, and so we are each called to be a lover of Christ. Each and every one of us are called to be "romantic" for Him.

With this at heart, I've made this blog to demonstrate exactly what this means and hopefully how to be as such. There will be articles, links and explications on other articles online (especially on posts from The Catholic Gentleman, which every guy reading this should check out: http://www.catholicgentleman.net/), and most likely there will be poetry. If anyone would like to write anything for this, that'd be awesome!

The main point I hope to get at is very well put by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen: "Say to yourself over and over again regardless of what happens: 'God loves me!' And then add 'And I will try to love Him!'" Love in action, love not being a feeling or sentiment, but rather devoting and sacrificing all of yourself to the good will of the beloved who is Christ, and therefore everyone because He sacrificed Himself for them, is the entire Christian mission. To love, to be valorous in love, to give yourself completely in love of Him, to never cease in your giving to Him all you are and do; This is what being "romantic" for Christ is.

So, if you would be so kind as to keep following this, hopefully my bits and pieces He inspires in me will help you to become a better lover of the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray for me, and know that you are all in my prayers!