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This past weekend at Mass, I got to see a perspective that I’ve never seen before. Because I help teach OCIA and because I’m going to be a godparent for one of the elect, I was standing up front during the scrutinies. The priest had the congregation rise so that we could all say the Nicene Creed. “I believe in one God…” Hearing and seeing the full church rise together and profess our faith from the vantage point of being up front was a very cool experience. The First Council of Nicaea took place in 325 AD and that’s where we got the Nicene Creed. We’ve been saying it since that time. When we lived in Turkey, we used to drive past Nicaea, called Iznik today, pretty frequently when we would go up to Istanbul. Why we never stopped is beyond me. Stupid. This picture is from the shores of the big lake that Nicaea sits by. It’s called Iznik Gölü. I got choked up at Mass thinking of the significance of how what was written so long ago in a different culture, with a different language has stood the test of time. Here we are saying it millennia later on an American Air Force Base in English. It’s our creed, our profession of what we believe as Catholics. “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light…” That’s good stuff, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Wednesday.
As the Catholic Pilgrim, I have been in so many Catholic Churches now that I have lost count. I've been in countless across the United States; I've been to numerous ones in Canada, Portugal, Turkey, and the Holy Land. I've spent years visiting all these churches and I'm always anxious to share them with you. Every time I enter a church, I take pictures with you all in mind. I want to bring you beauty and wonder. I want you to see the universality of the Church and it's such a joy and blessing to be able to visit our houses of God. I never tire of it. My favorite is when a church’s beauty literally takes my breath away, especially when I wasn't planning on it happening. There are two churches here in the States that floored me, mostly because I wasn't expecting them to. There have been plenty where I was totally expecting the church to wow me, but these two fooled me. The reason I wasn't expecting that much from them was because their outsides were just...nice. One of them was just...okay. On my 40th birthday, my husband took me to Cincinnati for a one day, overnight trip. The next morning, he wanted to take me to see the oldest church in Cincy, Old St. Mary’s. He knows I'm a sucker for old churches. We pulled up and I was underwhelmed. It's the white church on your left in the picture. I didn't expect much going in, but, boy, was I shocked. The beauty took my breath away and I'm not exaggerating. The second one was The Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. We got up to the outside and it was nice, nothing too amazing, though. Once I was inside, I felt like I was in Heaven. Unreal beauty and that monstrance--my, oh my. As I was thinking about these churches, it reminded me of the Eucharist. The Eucharist just looks like a plain piece of flat bread. It looks like nothing special. But, once you look past the ordinary and see with eyes of faith, it is splendid beyond our imagination. It is truly Christ, the most beautiful sacrificial lamb offered for us. The best part? When we receive the Eucharist in a state of grace, it makes our souls beautiful, too. Have a blessed Monday, Catholic Pilgrims. Tomorrow, I'll show the insides.
I got my favorite rendering of Christ on the Cross in the mail yesterday. I wanted it for Lent and to be able to meditate on it especially during Holy Week. If an artist does a good job, you will never tire of looking at their work. Yesterday, I talked about old wounds and how they can still throb every now and then. As I was thinking about Christ’s wounds, I realized that our wounds, too, are caused by the sins of others. That seems a bit duh, but it was a really profound moment for me. Even worse, our sins against others are their wounds that they must bear. Each time we sin against others, there are two nails pounded in: One into the person we are hurting and one into Christ. Our wounds inflicted by others can be united to Christ’s suffering and that is the only way to heal from them. We must forgive as Christ did on the Cross. This is how we imitate Him. Our ultimate goal, however, should be to stop driving nails into our fellow man and into Christ. We do this by living out the two greatest commandments: Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Have a blessed Fourth Friday in Lent, Catholic Pilgrims. *Painting is Christ Crucified by Diego Velázquez, 1632
The other night, I watched a video of a famous soccer player and his girlfriend that opened an old wound in me. Apparently, the guy is one of the best in the world and he’s handsome, and rich, and famous, and all the things. His gorgeous girlfriend is the mother of his two children and she would like to be married. Mr. Player…excuse me, Mr. Soccerman has been holding out to feel a “click” to tell him it’s time to marry her—the magical click moment, which he is 1000% sure is going to happen at some point. Somewhere down the road. Sometime… My heart went out to the woman because she’s hanging on to this promise of the “click” happening. To be sure, she’s not 100% innocent, but I feel for her because I know she doesn’t feel like enough. She’s not enough for him to commit to and that’s painful. I know that feeling. Two of my boyfriends treated me as if I wasn’t enough. There was always a prettier girl to comment on, a “cooler” chick for me to attempt to live up to. I ran in circles trying to please these guys and I tried to survive on to the crumbs they threw out on the floor. After watching this video, I started ranting outloud as I washed the dishes. And at one point my husband came over and hugged me and said, “Shhhhh…you are enough. You are beautiful and you’re more than enough.” I was stiff in his arms because of the anger in me, so he kissed my head and repeated what he said. Then I relaxed and calmed down. We often identify ourselves by old wounds: I’m just the girl who was never enough. Instead, though, we should identify ourselves by those who truly love us and know our worth, that includes good hubbies. Instead of looking to old wounds to identify yourself with, look to your identity as a child of God, Catholic Pilgrims. That is what actually matters. Have a blessed Thursday.
About six months ago, I had a longtime follower start harassing me. This person has followed me for years and the interaction had always been a pleasant one. They seemed solidly Catholic, reasonable, and engaging. Then, after the war started in Israel/Palestine, this follower started tagging me in political posts about the war, taunting me to speak up. They'd tag me on personal posts. Each time, I removed the tag and carried on with my day. When that didn't work, they DM'd me and lectured me about the war and how I wasn't doing enough. It was clear that they had bought into all the propaganda. My question was always the same, "What would you like me to do?" There was never any coherent answer. For a while, I just tried to ignore the tags, the callouts, the whatever, but, eventually, I had to block this person because it got so annoying. I get this from time-to-time: People trying to force me into being outraged about this political thing or that political thing. "You need to take a stand!" "Use your platform to call out injustice!" "Do you not care???????" Here's the deal: I talk about what moves me in prayer--not what moves me politically. Sometimes those two things coincide, most often they don't. I rarely, if ever, rush into joining the outrage mob and I certainly hate being forced into just being a clanging cymbal amongst the other clanging cymbals. Because the truth is, nobody's mind is changed and nobody is listening. Most importantly, though, is that I know that I can only truly affect change in my little sphere of influence. I could run around with my hair on fire fretting about every bad thing that happens on the globe, but that would leave me exhausted and ineffective AND I'd have nothing left for the people right in front of my face. All this to say, don't let people guilt you into trying to save the world, Catholic Pilgrims. Focus on your people, your community, and an area that you are super passionate about. Other than that, there is only so much the human heart and mind can deal with before it becomes overwhelmed. Life the Faith boldly and travel well this Wednesday.
Whenever someone asks something of me that involves a commitment, I want to know all the details. How long? What does this exactly entail? What do you expect from me? What are the logistics? Will I like it? It’s hard for me to commit unless I know all that will go on. I struggle to trust and I struggle to relinquish control unless things are going to go my way. That’s why I need the plan—the play-by-play. That way, I can decide if I want to agree. This isn’t all bad. We shouldn’t just blindly do whatever and never ask questions. However, I contrast my response to situations with Mary’s response at the Annunciation. An angel of God is giving her the news that she is to be the mother of the Son of God and she only asks one question before agreeing. Just one. God has picked her for the one of the greatest commitments the world has ever known and she only asks one question. Her trust is amazing and admirable. May we be more like Mary at the Annunciation, Catholic Pilgrims, and trust God when He asks something of us. Have a blessed Feast of the Annunciation.
I’ve never been super interested in reading self-help books. I know a lot of people like them and that’s fine. They aren’t inherently bad. One of the reasons I don’t like reading them is that I notice that they can become a bit of addiction for people. People devour one after the other looking for all the tips and tricks for getting their life in order. Another reason is that they contradict each other. One says to live a good life you must live like a minimalist. Then another says to fill your home with things that show your personality and are a comfort to you. Generally, we cycle through fads with these conflicting views. Granted, there can be self-help books that are fine and have worthwhile information, but on a whole, I find that, as humans, we go searching for all kinds of explanations for how to get our life in order, how to heal, how to make sense of our personality, how to “live our best life,” in complicated, secular books. Sometimes, the best answer is the simplest. Naaman, the leper, in our first reading today, didn’t want to hear that the simple cure for his leprosy was to clean in the Jordan River. It was too simple, but it was the answer. Confession Going to Mass Prayer Read Scripture If we simply did these things consistently, our lives would start to change for the better. These things are never a fad and stand the test of time. Live the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
“If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.” Luke 13:3 Twice in our Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells us that we must repent or perish. There are two negative responses to our sin. The first is the sin of presumption—to assume that just because we are a Christian, we get to go to Heaven. We presume faith alone saves us; there is nothing else for us to do. This is prideful. The second is the sin of despair—to believe our sin is too great for God to forgive. Strange as it sounds, it’s prideful. We think our sin is greater than God’s mercy. Both of these attitudes can cause us to perish. The right response is to humbly go before God in Confession and repent. We should want to repent if we love God and if we are grateful for His saving grace on the Cross. Lent is the perfect time to go to Confession and allow God’s mercy and love to cleanse you of a soul dead in sin. He wants to help you bear fruit in your life again. Have a blessed Third Sunday of Lent, Catholic Pilgrims.
When I was around the age of 11, my cousin got an Ouija Board. One bright, sunny day, we decided to climb her very tall fort and give it a try. Her fort was so high you needed an extension ladder to get into it or excellent arm muscles to climb the rope. To be sure, I had zero clue that Ouija Boards were bad. Anyway, we sat there with the board and wondered what we should ask it. Our great-grandmother had passed away not that long ago and we discovered that neither one of us knew her first name. I don’t even remember going to her funeral. We had always just called her by her last name. So, my cousin and I sat there and asked the board what her name was. We put our hands on the little thing and waited. After a long time, it started to hover over letters—E…V…A At the second it spelled this name, fierce wind started blowing and the sunny day immediately went dark. Thunder cracked and my cousin and I freaked. We hurried down the ladder in the blowing wind and sprinted to our grandparent’s house. Once inside, we found our grandma in the kitchen and I blurted out, “Grandma, what was your mother’s name?!” With a somewhat puzzled look, she said, “Eva.” My cousin and I never touched that stupid board again. Recently, in Sedona, I saw lots of New Age shops: Psychic readings, tarot cards, energy parlors, crystal healing shops. It’s all dangerous, Catholic Pilgrims. All the New Age practices are just a mishmash of self-worshipping stuff that exposes our souls to darkness, just as my soul was exposed with the Ouija Board. Trust in God, rely on prayer to Him, and value the things of the earth, but realize they are not what saves us. Live the Faith boldly and travel well.
As we were rumbling down the road to Sedona, my husband and I were talking about one of my recent posts on why it’s important to attend Mass. I was explaining to him the revelation I’d had after reading Thomas Merton talk about the necessity for joining others to worship God. My husband then said, “That’s a really great insight. Coming together to worship at Mass is participation in what we will be doing together in Heaven.” He continued, “I don’t think we think about who we will be in Heaven very much either. We need to think about that. Because everything we do on earth should be helping us to become our saintly self.” Josemariá Escrivá once wrote: “Conversion is the matter of a moment, sanctification is the work of a lifetime.” Sanctification is what makes us into who we will be in Heaven and who we were born to be. The reason so many are displeased, unhappy, and restless is because we haven’t reached our full potential of becoming a saint. We need to think about our Heavenly self, Catholic Pilgrims. That’s who we should be striving to become because a saint is one with a heart of Christ. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Thursday.
So, on Friday, when I asked you to guess where I was headed for Spring Break, I hinted by saying that the place holds one of the most architecturally interesting churches…or chapels. One of you guessed correctly, though I enjoyed reading all the guesses. As you’ve all found out, I went to Sedona, AZ and this was the chapel I was referring to—Chapel of the Holy Cross. In 1956, this little chapel was completed and, believe it or not, only cost $300,000. It’s built right into the rock and it creates a stunning view when you see it standing out of the rocks with the natural beauty of Sedona in the background. It also is a stark contrast to the pagan shops and energy parlors everywhere in town. There are dozens of them and, for the most part, they were empty. However, floods of people were flocking to this chapel to pray. I walked in and it was heartwarming to see people on their knees in front of the tabernacle worshipping the one true God. Even with all the people, it was relatively quiet. Believe it or not, three million people visit this chapel each year. My family came here as we were heading back home. It was a great place to come and cap-off our trip with prayers of gratitude for family and the wonder of nature. If ever in Sedona, Catholic Pilgrims, be sure to see this chapel and spend some time in prayer. Have a blessed Wednesday.
Just the other day, I had an angry atheist show up ready to argue with memes. I’ve had plenty of atheists over the years come here to argue. It’s often the same MO. Show a meme with a supposed contradiction or a verse taken out of context and try to force the Catholic to defend. I used to fall for this, but not anymore. Years and years ago, not long after I became Catholic, an old friend became an atheist. One day, she threw out a “suspect” verse and told me to explain. I did and she immediately threw out another verse. I explained. Then another verse. I explained. After a bit, I said, “Are you just going to have me running around explaining things but we don’t ever discuss? What do you think about what I’ve said? Thoughts?” She said, “I don’t care what you say. It’s all myth!” That’s when I understood. She was never asking to truly understand; she was asking to try to get me to doubt and send me on a red herring chase. That’s why I don’t engage with atheists, especially online, about verses in a book they think is myth. The conversation must necessarily start at does God exist or not. I offered that conversation to the recent atheist and he did not take me up on the offer. My new parish priest said the other night at our Mardi Gras dinner, “To even begin to understand the spiritual life and all it entails, you must first want to understand.” “Knock and the door will be opened to you.” There are many things in the spiritual life that we will never fully understand, but we can’t even hope to begin if we don’t put some faith in God and ask for help. If you stand outside the door simply shouting and raising your fist in defiance, no door will open and you will forever remain in the shadow of the door. But, if one desires even a little to understand and knocks, it will open. A wonderful, amazing, mysterious world will open behind it and you can seek and finally find answers that satisfy the soul. Have a blessed Thursday, Catholic Pilgrims.
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