Cardinal Dolan's Benediction At the DNC

What follows is the text of the prayer offered by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York.  Here is a man of faith unafraid to face the party which promotes abortion, gay marriage, and a whole host of other things that the Church teaches against.  It took great courage to pray in this way before the delegates who, only days before had eliminated God from their platform.

With a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,”  let us close this convention by praying for this land that we so cherish and love:

Let us Pray.

Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your blessings upon this our beloved nation.  Bless all here present, and all across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of your justice, and a more ample measure of your care for the poor and suffering, may prevail in these United States.  Help us to see that a society’s greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and neediest among us.

We beseech you, almighty God to shed your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by you:  life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thus do we praise you for the gift of life.  Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure.  We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected.  Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.

We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty.  May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms.  Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty:  the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice.  Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love.  Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.

We praise and thank you for granting us the life and the liberty by which we can pursue happiness.  Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God.  Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community.  May we welcome those who yearn to breathe free and to pursue happiness in this land of freedom, adding their gifts to those whose families have lived here for centuries.

We praise and thank you for the American genius of government of the people, by the people and for the people.  Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us:  President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Congress, the Supreme Court, and all those, including Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office.  Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country.  Help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself. With your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future course of public policy.

And finally Lord, we beseech your benediction on all of us who depart from here this evening, and on all those, in every land, who yearn to conduct their lives in freedom and justice.  We beg you to remember, as we pledge to remember, those who are not free; those who suffer for freedom’s cause; those who are poor, out of work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are persecuted for their religious convictions, those still ravaged by war.

And most of all, God Almighty, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country.

For we are indeed “one nation under God,” and “in God we trust.”

So dear God, bless America.  You who live and reign forever and ever.

Amen!

A Wedding

A wedding took place today.  Not an unusual thing to have happen on a Saturday afternoon!  But this was a very special wedding for my wonderful brother-in-law Tom Smith took for his bride a very lovely Barb James.  I was honored to have been asked to perform the duties of lector during the Mass.  

One of the readings Barb and Tom chose was taken from Saint Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians.  In the particular passage chosen for the wedding, we hear Paul describe what love is and what it isn't.  Read this slowly and let it sink into your consciousness.

"If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  (1 Cor 13: 2-7)

Most of us profess to love someone or something.  We throw the word "love" around very liberally and in doing so we have diluted its true meaning.  Saint Paul knew the difficulties of love.  He knew the true test love is and also knew that in order to succeed, we must turn over complete control to the Living God.  

As Barb and Tom set out on their married life, I ask God to bless them with daily reminders of the beauty of love between a man and a woman.  It is a love that reflects the love that God has for all of us.  

To those of us who have been married for some time, I challenge you to read and absorb the definition of love as outlined above.  Look at your own marriage and see if love is alive and vibrant based upon Paul's description.  Over the years it is so easy to become complacent about love that we take it for granted.  But there is no room for complacency in love.  Renew your marriage and your marital commitment to each other by looking at each element of love and refocusing your attention on that part of love and see what happens.

Above all, let all of us who have chosen the married life as our vocation, be reminded that the only truly successful marriage is one that is based on the love of God as the central focus of the union.  It may not make some days easier, but it will most certainly lead to the peace that God had always intended for us.

To Tom and Barb, may your love be always as fresh and alive as it is today, your wedding day.  May you grow old together with dignity and grace.  May you never take each other or the love that you have for one another for granted.  It is the greatest gift you have received this day and, unlike all the other gifts you receive on this day, will last for an eternity!  Happy Wedding Day!

A New Start

Some time ago, when I first began this blog, I said that I would post something on a daily basis based either on Scripture or a feast on the Catholic calendar for that particular day.  Well, needless to say, I didn't follow through with this.

I could offer all sorts of excuses like no time or too tired or there was really nothing to write about.  Yet, these are just excuses.

When it comes to the practice of our faith, excuses don't count and neither should any excuse be used to explain why I haven't written in this spot on a regular basis.

That is changing.  Beginning tomorrow I will begin posting thoughts, observations, reflections, or inspirational material daily.  My faith to me is a precious and wondrous gift to my life.  It has seen me through nearly everything you might be able to imagine.  When the world seemed to have abandoned me, my faith, God, stood by me.  When there were times that it seemed like the best thing to do was to give up or give in, God was there.  He sustained me in my darkest moments because, among other things, God is Divine, Eternal Hope.

This hope is not the wishful thinking type.  It is the promise fulfilled by Jesus on the Cross Who saved us from eternal damnation with no contact with God--ever.  There is simply no greater a nightmare in human existence than eternal separation from the Creator.

And so, please join me on my daily journey through the days we are given as I share with you the faith that has come to be the bedrock of my life, the faith which allows me to come to know God, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Love that binds them, the Holy Spirit.  Catholic or not, it is my hope to stir your imagination, your curiosity, and your faith as we take a Daily Journey with Jesus in our lives.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today, on the Catholic liturgical calendar, the Catholic Church celebrates the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  It is a day in which we recall the enormous infinite love that Christ has for each and every one of us.  It is a day when the Gospel of Saint John recalls the moments immediately after Jesus died when a Roman soldier pierced the Savior's side and immediately blood and water poured forth.  This became symbolic of the love that Jesus manifested by dying on the Cross.

Jesus had a broken heart.  His heart broke because of our sinfulness, our complete disregard for the Father's will.  On one level, He must have been stunned at the level of disrespect all of humanity shows the Father through our sinful nature.  He was the model of following God's will, seeing it everywhere and finding it in every aspect of life.  He taught us that through prayer and fasting, we may be able to discern the Father's will in a clear manner that would lead to our following it with more ease than we can imagine.  Often, in the gospels, we see Him going off by Himself to pray.  And this was not just a minute or two during the day to utter a Psalm or two.  No!  When Jesus prayed, He often prayed for hours, many times foregoing sleep to pray all night long.  He did this to achieve full communion with His Father and He also did this as an example for us all.

How many of us can actually say that when we pray, we could go on for hours?  Many of us feel proud of ourselves if we're able to achieve fifteen minutes of uninterrupted prayer in which we're able to fully concentrate?  Yet we must remember that Jesus was just as human as we are.  He had the same human limitations as we with the exception of our sinful nature.  He even had the same temptations that we experience.  Why is it that we cannot follow Jesus' example in prayer?

Jesus loved us fully with His human heart.  His Passion, Death, and Resurrection were all done out of His deep love for each and every one of us, even the worst of us!  He gave Himself up for each one of us.  It was not just something that happened to Him.  He chose to die even though it was completely unnecessary for Him to do so.  He took upon Himself the sins of the world.  He became guilty of each sin that we commit during our lifetime so that He might offer Himself up to the Father in reparation for our offenses.

"See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God; and so we are."  (1Jn 3:1)  It is in this selfless act of dying that Jesus reveals His Sacred Heart, the well-spring of God's love for humankind.  That heart, burdened with our sinfulness, was opened by a lance which in reality is symbolic of the sins of mankind.  The Blood of the Lamb poured out on man so that we may be washed clean.  "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends."  (Jn 15:13)

How do our hearts measure up to Jesus' Sacred Heart?  Are we willing to actually die for someone we do not know?  Are we willing to become guilty of another person's crimes?  No one is that generous, yet, because Jesus became one with the Father through His sacrifice and great love in His heart for both the Father and the human race, He was more generous than we could possibly understand.

Jesus gave His Sacred Heart for us and to us.  It is the reason for His choosing to die for our sake.  Without that Heart, we would have had no recourse for the forgiveness of our sins.  There would be no reason to hope, no reason to have joy in this world because our fate would have been one of darkness.  But because of the generosity of that Sacred Heart, our future is nothing but joy and light!

"We Should Believe in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ" (1 Jn 3: 23)



Believing in the name of Jesus Christ really doesn't take that much if we think about it.  Believing in the name, quite simply, means that we believe in the Person of Jesus Christ.  We believe that He is truly the Son of God and that He came to rescue us from the bondage of sin.  We believe that He is the anointed one, the Messiah.  In believing these things, we accept as truth, all of the teachings that He gave us.

But there is more to this verse than the line quoted in the title of this piece.  The rest of the verse challenges us to "love one another, just as he has commanded us."  (1 Jn 3: 23)  Loving those who we close to us is quite easy.  This demands nothing from us and there is no redeeming quality in this.  (cf Mt 16:26, Mk 8:36, Lk 9: 25) Where the real challenge comes in is when we are expected to love those with whom we have problems or those who have hurt us or violated us in any way.

How do we go about loving those whom we perceive as our enemies?  It is not easy.  It is within our nature to at the very least avoid those who have hurt us.  We run from them when we see them coming.  It is built into our DNA to preserve ourselves at any cost.  There are times when it is necessary to defend ourselves from harm.  But we must also have the willingness to reach out to those who have not treated us very well to, at the very least, forgive them.  Jesus Himself demonstrated this while He was suffering on the cross.  "Father forgive them; for they know not what they do."  (Lk 23: 34)

This is the difficulty of Christianity.  In the past there has been much bloodshed prompted by those who professed to be Christians.  They wielded the word of God as a sword, destroying enemies and people all in the name of the Lord.  But Jesus from the cross tells us that we are to conduct ourselves differently.  With one word he could have easily brought down the Roman executioners and released Himself from the cross in a triumphant display of power.  That is what most people expected the Messiah to do.  However, Christ's way was the way of humility. 

It takes a great deal of humility to forgive.  When we forgive, we swallow our pride.  We recognize that the need for mercy is far greater than the need for vengeance and retribution.  When we forgive we elevate the transgressor along with ourselves.  We seek peace and offer to work to maintain that peace.  We may be persecuted or ridiculed for our actions because our society calls for vengeance.  It is more in a mode of an eye for an eye than love one another.  As Christians, we must counter this by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We must be willing to call from our lives as Christ called from the cross, "Father for give them; for they know now what they do."

"Show Us the Father and That Will Be Enough For Us"



How many of us, at one time or another, have yearned to see God?  I would imagine that if we were all honest with ourselves we could easily say that all of us have wished for even the quickest glimpse of the Father.  After all, our lives are a journey back to Him. 

The Apostle Philip, one of those who shared the Last Supper with Jesus, asked this question.  Jesus must have certainly been frustrated by this comment.  You can hear His tone in His answer.  "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me Philip?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."  It isn't like Philip and the other Apostles hadn't heard this before.  Time after time Jesus told them that He and the Father were one."  (Jn 14: 9)  In a few short hours, He would prove His love for them and for all humankind by dying on the cross and rising three days later, all as a sacrificial offering to the Father.  Every Apostle except one, would abandon him and cower in the very room in which this conversation was taking place.  Even when they saw the Risen Christ, they still did not get it.  They still did not understand that every time they looked upon Jesus, they were looking upon God.

How much different are we from them?  We look for signs of God and, not finding them, we begin to doubt.  We pray for some indication of Him, some glimpse of Him in our lives.  We pray.  We wait.  We search and come up empty.  Frustration sets in and the disbelief arises in our hearts.  Once this happens, our will begins to supersede His.  And sin enters our souls because we do not have enough faith to believe.  And, yet, we are blind.  And in our blindness, we become callous and cold, withdrawing from the world, from others, and sadly, from Him.  At this point, we lose ourselves.

Like Philip, we are looking with human eyes, eyes that are fixed solely on mortal images.  We do not see God because God is not visible in the mortal world.  There are reflections of Him.  The majesty of the mountains.  The vastness of the sea.  The night sky with it's enormous array of stars and planets.  He is reflected in the smile of a baby and in the aged eyes of a grandparent watching that baby graduate years later from college.

These are all valid reflections of God presence in our world and in our lives.  But they are not God.  God is, however, visible through spiritual eyes, through the eyes of faith.  If we listen carefully to Jesus, we find that God is not of this world.  That we already knew.  But He goes on to tell us that now that we have become His followers, we, too, are not of this world.  (cf Jn 17: 16)  We are of the spiritual realm of existence while alive in this mortal world.

The vision of God begins, then, with faith.  We must first believe in God, in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.  But it does not end there.  We must then practice that faith.  We must exercise that faith so that it grows strong.  We must witness with our lives to the world that Jesus is Lord and that we do believe in Him.  We must reach out to others in love, mercy, and compassion.  We must become the Lord to all who are in need.  This can be done in any number of ways from prayer to community involvement.  But one thing is certain, if we do not practice our faith, it will wither and die and then it will be impossible to see God.

The effect of practicing our faith is that we begin to see Christ in everyone and in everything.  Even at times when it seems like God is far from us, quiet and unresponsive, He is there.  He is in the tragic accident that happened down the street when a neighbor's home burned to the ground killing their only child.  He is in the eyes of that detestable person who seems to go out of their way to make our lives miserable.  He is in every other countless human moments that may suggest there is no God at all.  When we begin to see this, we begin to see God.  When we reach this point, we can know that the Holy Spirit has inspired us and has given us a spiritual vision that spurs us on to greater faith.

This does not come easy!  Philip was still looking to see God even though for three years he had stood in front of him, teaching him and showing him the way of the Father.  The Master is still with us, standing before us in all who are in need or distress of any kind.  You see, we have seen the Father after all!

Good Friday

Good Friday.  The holiest Friday of the year.  Today we commemorate the brutal Passion and Death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  There is so much that can be said about this day.  So much that can be learned from it.

For a moment, however, I would like to view Good Friday not from our perspective, but from that of God's.

Traditionally, on the night of Good Friday, Catholics gather to remember the Lord's great sacrifice.  During this most solemn liturgy, the reproaches are recited.  These remarkable utterings come from God, expressing His feelings at the moment His only Son is dying for our sins through crucifixion.

"My people, what have I done to you?  Or in what have I offended you?  Answer me.

What more should I have done, and did not do?

I led you out of the land of Egypt, and you prepared a cross for me.

I opened the Red Sea before you, and you opened my side with a lance.

I gave you a royal scepter, and you have given me a crown of thorns.

With great power, I lifted you up, and you have hung me upon a cross.

My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I offended you?

Answer me.!"

In these brief, beautiful, yet, stark words, the feelings of our Creator, God, are summed up in terms that we mere human beings can relate to.  Our God has done everything for us.  He has given us everything.  He has shown us that through His Son's death on a cross, we have eternal life, and, yet, we still sin, still deny He even exists.  We fight among ourselves about what His will is for us, all the while ignoring the one image, the Holy Cross, that carries a message for the ages that if we but follow His holy will we will triumph.

What do we continue to do to God through our sinful behavior?  Why do we continually turn our backs on Him to follow our will, a will that is flawed with the stain of sin?  Why do we not have the kind of mature and lasting faith in Him after He showed us how much love He has for us by giving up His only Son so that we might live?

Today we walk with the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.  He was brutalized for us.  He was nailed to a cross and hung in bitter agony for three hours while the world passed by, barely pausing to gaze upon it's very Savior.  Those who did pause, mocked Him, made fun of Him, taunted Him.  Then, they went about their business, not giving Him another thought.  And, yet, He died for all!  

Let us pause on this holiest of Fridays.  Let us pause in solemn remembrance for the sacrifice that was made for us on this very day.  Let us pause to remember that our sins made this sacrifice a necessity.  But let us also pause in thanksgiving for a God "Who gave His only begotten Son so that we might live."  (Jn 3: 16)  This is the day of our deliverance and as the sun sets this evening, and we recall our Savior's lifeless body being placed in a tomb, we remember His promise to rise in three days.  We now await, with great anticipation, the completion of our Redemption, the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ!

In remembering the reproaches quoted above, we now add:

"My people, look what I have done for you!

I have given you life through my Son!

Come, worship Him, and enter My Kingdom!"