Been Fishing Again

It is always inspiring to see someone give up their future, their dreams, their possessions, and everything they have for the Church. Though no such sacrifice is small (like the widow with the two coins, they give all that they have) sometimes these people very obviously give up *a lot*...like this athlete who surrendered a promising career to join the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal: HERE It always makes me reflect on how little I trust in God, myself, and how little I have really given Him in His service.

Highlighting Orders

I wanted to take a moment to bring to your attention a certain religious order that I thought you might find interesting.

The Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles


I met a couple Sisters (Srs. Mary Philomena and Grace Helena) from this Order some three years ago; they came to my part of the country to speak to a youth group.  When I began to actively discern, I looked into their Order briefly (I'm just too Franciscan to be Carmelite.  Sorry.).  Theirs is a very traditional, orthodox Order with a great apostolate and charism.  If you like to spend time with Sisters because, frankly, nuns are cool, you should check them out.  And if you have recently begun actively discerning I strongly suggest you add them to your list of Orders to Contact.

I'd write more about them here, but their website already says it all.
Go give it a look.  Be sure to read this page if current Catholic events interest you.

Searching for Peace

“May the Peace of Christ reign in your hearts.” ~Colossians 3:15

Everyone, at some point in their spiritual journey, experiences a moment when peace (and the joy attached to it) suddenly and often inexplicably flees.  This lack of peace leaves behind doubt, fear, uncertainty, and that uneasy feeling that since your heart is restless, it must not rest in God; “what did I do wrong?” 

A while back, my spiritual director told me to read a little book called “Searching for and Maintaining Peace” by Rev. Jacques Philippe.  Today, I would like to recommend it to you.  It is a very insightful and inspiring work that I found unspeakably helpful.  It explores the reasons we lose our peace, how we should react to this loss, and it offers concrete steps to take in order to regain our peace.  It even gives advice on how to trust in the Lord despite our doubts and fears, what we should do when we are struggling with matters of conscience, and how to deal with the suffering of our loves ones.  For being little more than one hundred pages long, it is surprisingly thorough!  And though I especially recommend it to those who are searching for their peace, it really is for everyone.  If we aren’t searching for peace, we are trying to keep it, and as the title implies, this book covers both.  I highly recommend it.

It is available on Amazon and as an iBook.

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O God.” ~St. Augustine

Adopting the Unborn

The idea of spiritually "adopting" an unborn child has been around for quite a while.  People ask God to "assign" to them one child who is in danger of being aborted.  They give this child a name and promise to pray for them, not only while he/she faces abortion, but even after they are born and throughout their entire lives.  Saint Padre Pio said that God's power triumphs over everything, but that humble and suffering prayer triumphs over God Himself.  Prayer makes all the difference.  I would like to encourage you to spiritually adopt an unborn child today. 

"Dearest Lord, please guide and and guard this unborn child whom I have spiritually adopted.  Never allow me to forget to suffer and pray for him and, Sweetest Jesus, for his sake, do not ignore my plea.  Make him holier than I, Lord, provided I become as holy as I should.  Command Your angels to take this child by the hand and lead him through this life on earth, following closely in your footsteps.  Never permit him to to stray from Your path, I beg You, Merciful Lord, and when this child's time on earth is through please send Your Most Holy Mother to gather his soul and bring Hhim to live with you in happiness forever.  For this I pray, that You might be glorified in heaven and on earth.  Amen."

The Religious Family

As you may already know, I am a young Catholic woman who has been discerning a vocation to the religious life for a number of years.  I have looked into countless communities, contacted upwards fifty of them, and become close to three.  I have studied their Rules, their community life, their habits, their charism, their apostolate.  I am only a lowly discerner and have never joined, but I know quite a bit about nuns.  And I like them.  A lot. 

As of late, the goodness of nuns has been much praised in the news.  People all over the internet are exclaiming over the experiences they had with wonderful teaching Sisters.  The speak of how Sisters are women of God, and are doing good, and are just trying to be holy followers of Jesus.  I would be very pleased and touched to hear all of this and see all of this support.  However, after reading only a few comments and articles, I realized very quickly that there is an itty bitty problem:  none of these Sister-Praisers even know what a nun is!

“Strike ladies, just strike.  Tell the men in the church to **** themselves”

“Keep doing Christ’s work ladies, let the Pope and his corrupt power driven staff play politics by themselves…”

“the Vatican and the bishops want to rein in the various women’s religious communities?  Good luck, boys! you are up against some of the freest spirits and thinkers in the church. your battle is lost befoe it has begun.”

I have always liked the religious life and have always been open to a religious vocation.  I first became interested in the idea of living in a community, and after a bit of research eventually became attracted to certain apostolates, certain charisms, and the idea of being a Bride of Christ.  I fell very much in love with nuns, all by their feminine selves.  However, despite my interest and attraction I made no move to actively discern or to in any way claim this vocation for myself.  This inactivity continued for three years.  What finally changed my mind?  What transformed mere attraction to longing?  What turned interest into wanting?  No, it was not some new information as to Orders.  It was not some discovery about women.  It was not even the stirring speech my Spiritual Director gave on needing to join to truly discern (though that was a part of it).  What really made me want to claim the “sisterhood” was the priesthood.

I was on a trip with my Spiritual Director, a seminarian, and a youth group.  We were going on a week-long road trip, the primary focus of which was a youth conference.  However, on the way, we stopped to see several religious communities and visit with the Sisters.  One of these Orders was the Nashville Dominicans.  We spoke with them, were given a tour of their convent, and even went to Vespers with them.  It was very beautiful and after it was all over I climbed into the van still wondering at the splendor and peace I felt there.  Then the seminarian with us said from the front seat, “Seeing all those Sisters…it gives me strength.”  He said it to himself, but his tone and his words struck me more than all the beauty and even the Sisters themselves. 

I admired that seminarian (now Father) very much.  I admire my Spiritual Director.  In fact, I know a lot of priests and most of my friends are seminarians, and I admire them all.  Why would I not?  Priests give so much.  They wake up at all hours of the night to bring the Sacraments and comfort to the dying.  They pour hours and years and their health into forming loving, charitable, faith-filled communities out of recalcitrant parishes of self-absorbed and change-despising old people.  They put immeasurable amounts of effort and care into involving apathetic teenagers and teaching those poor, wandering souls what Love is.  And then, inevitably, not uncommonly at a very bad time, they are torn away.  All of the relationships they established and the progress they made are taken away from them and given to someone else as they are shuffled around the diocese from parish to parish.  The whole process begins again, and again, and again, repeating itself in six-or-so-year cycles.  I can only imagine how frustrating it must be; I have seen how lonely it is.  They give so much, they sacrifice so much, and they get so little in return.

When I heard that seminarian say with such feeling, such emotion, that those Nashville Dominicans give him strength…I wanted that.  I wanted to be one of those women who lend priests strength.  I wanted to serve those who serve.  I wanted to be a Clare for Francis.  That was all.  That was what made me want religious life. 

This is not a strange reason to be attracted.  It is quite natural, evident in the very words we use to describe the people involved.  Anyone who knows a crumb about the Catholic Church is well aware that she—while being the sum total of her members, and all together the Body of Christ and His family—has also a sort of “family-within-a-family”.  Father, Brother, Sister, and Mother are very common terms in the Catholic Church, not only on a mundane and physical level, but also in a spiritual sense.  These special men and women devote their entire lives and give their very souls to Christ and His Church, and in doing so form a sort of spiritual family of their own.  Commenters such as the above wish to divorce this family; what they do not understand is that in doing so they would destroy exactly what they claim to defend. 

How can one be a Sister if they do not have a Brother?  How can one be a Mother if there is no Father?  These titles we call our religious by reveal a deeper truth about their vocation: they do not stand alone.  These selfless people are not defined by themselves but find their identity in the other.  To advocate their separation is equal to an act of violence upon a very real family; to shout eagerly “away with the bishops and the Pope; the sisters are the conscience of the church!” is paramount to wishing away the sibling of a sister or brother. 

“You go ladies!! The days of follow the leader are over, especially when the leadership is exclusively comprised of only one gender.”

When people speak like this, I have no idea what they are talking about.  They certainly aren’t speaking of nuns, since sisters would be nothing without priests and the Church.  I can only conclude that they do not know of that which they speak.  Or perhaps they hate religious sisters AND the Vatican, and wish to bring about the destruction of both.  Either way, it offends me greatly for it threatens a family I have long cherished.

As for the Sisters of the LCWR themselves…if the comments attributed to them are true…I feel sorry for them.  I do not know how or why, but they have forgotten who and what they are.  How very sad it is to see women who have given their lives forget what they gave it for!  To see a Sister who remembers not her Brother, a Mother who doesn’t recall the Father of her children, makes me cry.  To know that a woman calls herself a nun, places herself in name at the core of the Church, and then would defy and deny that Church…I really have no words.  I just hope and pray that the reform the Vatican is implementing for the LCWR will cure these sisters of their amnesia. 

 As for me…when it comes to religious life, I do not want to be a woman.  I want to be a daughter to a loving Father.  I do not want to be a single sibling; I want to be a sister.  I do not want to be an old maid; I want to be a mother.  I do not want to marry feminism; I want to marry Christ and serve His Church, and without priests there is no Church.  To call myself a sister without these would make no sense.  I would not be a Sister. 

“Thank God, I mean that literally, your thinking is dying out, as the old right-wingers of Catholicism make their final gasps.”

There are no poles in this issue; you either stand with the Church, or against her.  I do not want your substitute, your broken family, your amnesiac mothers and sisters.  I, along with countless other young Catholic women, want the Church and we want Francis.  I’d be proud to be one of the many, many reasons the CMSWR is growing.

CMSWR vs. LCWR

If you want to see some Sisters who know who they are, visit this website: CMSWR

If you want to see how Brothers care for their Sisters, go HERE

And if you want to know more about the Nashville Dominicans, visit their WEBSITE

Please pray for our priests, and those who support them.  They are Fathers as surely as those you celebrated with yesterday!

Quotes for Reflection on Saturday #2

Sorry I skipped out on this little series last week; I was very busy.  I hope this one will make up for it.

“Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.”

~Michel de Montaigne

I’ve been familiar with this quote for a long time.  I do not know much about the author, aside from the fact that he was a respected politician, is a respected essayist, and was a devout Roman Catholic (which makes it very amusing that after all my years of loving this quote I should find it HERE.) 

I have not only loved this quote for years, I find that I have most unfortunately lived it for years.  Yes, dear friends, I am stark raving mad, and for the longest time I never even knew it. 

It used to be that when I thought of the First Commandment (“thou shalt not have strange Gods before me”) I would think—quite naturally—of the pagans.  False gods, in my mind, meant Baal and Thoth and Thor and the like.  It meant making statues of creatures, killing calves before them, and other such strange and recognizable practices.

However, gods are much more easily and subtly made.  A god can be anything to which we attach the value and attributes of the One True God; worship is not just in blood, but in attention, time, and love.  How much time and attention does it require to make a “strange god” of something?  I believe that question is best answered with another: how much time, attention, and love does the True God require?

Well, all of it, frankly.  He Who gives us our very existence…He Who commands us to pray without ceasing…He Who is infinite…He demands all of our time, all of our love, and all of our attention.  Nothing can have value outside of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God because nothing is outside of Him.  I cringed when I realized this.  If a false god is anything  given what belongs to God—and all attention, love, and value belongs to God—that means that if we place value on anything we have made a false god.  Every time I watch television without God as my end, I’ve made a false god.  Every time I read a book without reflecting upon how that action serves God, I have made a false God.  Every time I love my loved ones without viewing that love as a service for the Lord, I have made a false God.

Now, I am not saying that we live in mortal sin all the time.  We are human beings; it is in our nature to love others and to enjoy pleasure.  We unconsciously attach God-less value to all sorts of things, and an unconscious sin is hardly a sin.  Yet…

Dear Lord, how many Gods we make!

(Now please enjoy this off-topic quote:

“There is one thing worse than being alone: wishing you were.”

~Bob Steele
Thank you for reading!)

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