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A few years after I entered the Catholic Church, I decided to pick up St. Thomas’ Summa. I thought, “How hard could this be to read?” lol. I made it about two pages in and gently set it to the side. At that time, I was not primed for reading something like that. Since that time, I’ve worked really hard to educate myself and learn how to think deeply, not just emotionally. More than anything, St. Thomas has taught me how to have integrity in my thinking and how to seek truth. I’ll share what I’ve learned from him. 1. You must always read the primary source. In this day and age, quotes are taken out of context and used to press an agenda. Go to the source. 2. Reactionary thinking is often flawed. If people are trying to get you ginned up and emotional, chances are, you will miss the truth. 3. Sit with things for a while…in silence. 4. Just because you want something to be true, doesn’t mean it is. 5. Ask questions. 6. Always look at both sides of an argument. If something does not make logical sense, you can toss it and do not have to entertain it anymore. 7. If seeking the truth is not coupled with prayer and humility, you will struggle to find it. There have been many times in my life since learning from St. Thomas Aquinas where I’ve asked, “How would St. Thomas handle this situation?” He’s been a good guide, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday. St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
Continue Reading"Man can counterfeit everything in himself except a clean conscience." When we were stationed at Tyndall AFB, one of my husband's favorite things to do was to rent a boat for visitors. Whenever we would cruise around the bay, I'd be fine. However, if you got me out onto the open ocean, it was within minutes that I would feel nauseous. One day, my husband and I went out with my sister and her then boyfriend. My sister and I immediately started feeling sick and my husband said, "Stand up, look at the horizon, and smile." If you can imagine it, there we were standing stick straight, holding onto the boat, staring off into the distance with stupid fake smiles on our face. But, the fake smiles worked, we started to feel better. I get motion sickness pretty easily and whenever I'm feeling bad, my husband tells me to smile or force a laugh. It's ridiculous, but it works. I can fake it until I make it when it comes to motion sickness. Yesterday, in my OCIA class, I was telling the catechumens about my first confession. Being raised Protestant, I didn't have Confession at my disposal and I thought it was stupid anyway. I could just "talk to Jesus in my head and ask Him to forgive my sins." I never did this, but that was my argument. Plus, Jesus covered all my sins already, so what was the point really in confessing anything. AND to add to that, I wasn't *that* bad, so I didn't really have that much to confess, or so I thought. I faked a lot of happiness and goodness in my life and a lot of people were convinced. I could not convince myself, though. You cannot fake a clean conscience on the inside. Eventually, it will eat you up. You cannot fake it until you make it with regards to a clean conscience. I could trick my brain with fake smiles so that I wouldn't feel motion sickness. But, I could not trick my soul with fake smiles so that I wouldn't "feel" my unclean conscience. There was something I needed to do to clean my conscience and that was to go to Confession. "Conscience brings to man rewards of happiness or of pain: rewards of vivid life or--of death." --Dirk Coster A clean conscience rewards of happiness, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Monday.
Continue ReadingThis is a Nazareth kitty. I'm from a small town just outside the Kansas City area. My mom used to work for the city and, consequently, everyone knew who I was. I was very familiar to a lot of people and, to many, I still am. It's always a bit hard to go back to your hometown once you've started out on your journey. People in town just see you as who you once were or how they once knew you. This is comforting on the one hand because you'll always feel you belong. However, it is hard for them to see you as a person that has grown and changed. For them, you will always just be the person before you left town. That's what they are familiar with. Today, in our Gospel reading from Luke, we hear, "He came to Nazareth, where He had grown up." We know from other verses that people in Nazareth didn't take to Jesus coming back and being different than when He was young and lived among them. He was just Jesus, the carpenter's son. That was who was familiar to them. In their minds, He needed to just stay in that lane--just the "ordinary" Nazareth guy. Because Jesus was familiar to them, they had a hard time accepting His authority, His mission. Sometimes, I fear that we are like the townspeople of Nazareth. Jesus becomes just a pal, someone we know, someone we can hang with, you know...the familiar guy. When He becomes familiar in that way, we start to not see Him as the authority in our lives, and as Our King, Our Lord, and Our Savior. For some, familiarity breeds contempt. It did with many of the townspeople in Nazareth. It does with many of us today. We are familiar with Jesus, but we don't really want Him to have too much influence. We don't want to listen to Him too closely. If He tries to guide our lives in a direction we don't want to go, we tell Him how it's gonna be. If we hear anything from the Gospel that doesn't fit our worldview, we get mad and upset. It's not enough to just be familiar with Jesus. We need to know Him, seek Him, revere Him, and be in awe of Him. We can never say, "Oh, Jesus, yeah, I know that guy." Instead, Catholic Pilgrims, let us say with the Apostle Thomas, "Jesus, my Lord and my God." Have a blessed Sunday.
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