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This is a story about the curious cases of Mr. Nitpick and Mrs. Nitpick. Not long after Christmas, I posted a picture of the church I went to the Sunday after Christmas. Southwest Missouri doesn't have Catholic Churches that rival the beautiful ones up north in KC and St. Louis, so it wasn’t the grandest church of all time. Anyway, I put together a heart-felt post and someone completely breezed past the message and said to me, "Shouldn't there be flowers around the tabernacle?" What you couldn't tell from the picture was that the tabernacle was in an enclosure. I'd never seen anything like it before and it was kinda cool. The doors of the enclosure stuck out making it hard to have flowers. I responded back, "It's in an enclosure, it wouldn't make sense to put flowers in there." And it wouldn't. They'd look stuffed. But...my explanation mattered not at all. It didn't matter that there were loads of poinsettias all around the altar, near the tabernacle and up front. Nope. According to the commenter, if there weren't flowers stuffed inside the enclosure, people weren't acknowledging the Real Presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. I struggled to have patience with Mr. Nitpick. The reason I struggled is because I've been that person, too. I have a deep disdain for 60s styling and architecture--it's bland, it's typically ugly, and apparently nobody understood symmetry. I know every church can't look like Notre Dame, but come on. Then one day, I went to a First Communion Mass. It was at one of those 60s styled churches and everything was hideous to me. My attitude about the whole thing spilled over into my attitude at the Mass. I caught myself scowling the ENTIRE time. Instead of listening to the liturgy of the Mass, I was nitpicking everything--the altar, the music, the carpet, the cross. Everything. When I walked out of Mass, I realized with sorrow that I had not paid attention one iota to the Consecration or receiving the Eucharist. I had lacked zero gratitude because I had chosen to nitpick to death everything in the church. One of the most memorable Masses for me was in a dirty prison classroom while doing prison ministry. The "altar" was a brown table and the room lacked any depth of beauty whatsoever, yet I was moved to tears at the Consecration. I didn't nitpick because my focus was on Christ. It's easy to nitpick things to death, Catholic Pilgrims. "This isn't the right music. The flowers aren't right. The altar isn't perfect. The art is ugly." I wish all our churches could be stunningly beautiful, but what is more important is that our soul is open with gratitude to the Lord. Our soul needs to be beautiful and it simply can't be when we have become Mr. or Mrs. Nitpick. Something to keep in mind, and most especially for myself. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
Continue ReadingIn my younger years, when I was limping along in my faith life, I thought that however I wanted to live out my belief in God was perfectly fine. In fact, my attitude was such that I felt God needed to come to me. He needed to do all the “heavy lifting.” Basically, I was like Herod. Herod obviously was jealous of Jesus and wanted to get rid of Him, but he feigned a desire to adore the Christ Child which was no different than myself. I simply couldn’t be bothered with going to church to be with God or do anything else, for that matter. The Magi were different. They did whatever was needed to be close to Christ. They traveled, they asked about Him, they looked for Him, they brought Him gifts, they brought their praise and they worshiped Him. Then they went home by a different way. Venerable Fulton Sheen once said, “No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way as he came.” When I was like Herod, apathetic and fake in my desire to know Christ, I continued on the same self-serving path that offered no growth or true joy. Once I became more like the Magi, my pilgrimage through life became different and that has made all the difference, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Sunday where we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord. *Picture is from San Fernando Mission in LA
Continue ReadingThis picture is from the monastery founded by St. Basil the Great, who along with St. Gregory Nazianzen, is celebrated today. It is located in Cappadocia, Turkey. This part of the structure comes centuries after St. Basil's time which was in the late 300s. My daughter and I took a walk the other day out in the desert and I asked her if she had any resolutions for the new year. She said, "No, not really. If I want to do something or change something, I just do it. There's no reason to wait until the start of a new year." I get the desire to start something with the freshness of a new year. It's like a reset button. But, if something is good for you and should be done, it should be done once you realize you need to make the change. If you know you should read the Bible more, start when your conscience is pricked. If you need to get healthy, start as soon as you can. If you need to give up an addiction, don't wait for a new year. One of the reasons that New Year's resolutions don't stick for so many is that the motive very often is too inwardly focused. If the change desired is attached to a vice, such as vanity, it will be difficult to sustain. St. Basil founded the monastery in this area to reform lives and to combat heresy. Once he knew it was what he needed to do, he set out to do it. And the motive was God-focused, not self-focused. If our desire to change or grow is attached to a desire to be able to live out God's will better, it is more likely it will stick. Our purpose in this life is to live out God's will and when we align growth and change with His Will, it means we are doing it for someone outside ourself. Ultimately, this will make us more happy. There is nothing wrong with starting a resolution at the beginning of the year, Catholic Pilgrims. We just have to make sure we are doing it for the right reasons and the main reason, above all else, is to be better equipped to live out God's purpose for us. Have a blessed Thursday.
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