20 C + M + B 14

In the malls and on tv, they immediately move on from Christmas–in order to exploit the next event for profit. But in church, we linger with Christmas for 2 ½ weeks. We meditate on the great mystery. And we try to get a grip on the year to come, for what it really is: a holy year of grace. The 2,014th year of Christ’s unfathomable grace.

In May, Pope Francis will visit Bethlehem and Jerusalem. He begins his trip on the 11th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood! In the fall, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, and Holy Father will preside over the first part of the Synod on the Family! Too wonderful just to be a conincidence: This year in the cluster we already have four weddings scheduled, and there could be three or four more, on top of that!

Before all this, on this coming Friday evening, our Francis-of-Assisi youth will co-sponsor a coffeehouse in Roanoke to help people get married! Get married at the proper time and in the proper way, that is.

Two weeks from today, we will go to Washington to stand up for the innocent and defenseless unborn babies!

Then, on the following day, our Francis-of-Assisi delegation will travel to Haiti to visit Father Serdieu and our twin parish in Trianon.

It is never too cold to do the will of God.

If you paid attention to the Epiphany proclamation on Sunday, you know that Lent doesn’t start until March 5 this year. So we get to go up the whole way through the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time between now and then!

On April 27, Pope Francis will canonize John Paul II on the ninth liturgical anniversary of his holy death!

We read about the Lord marvellously walking on water. When someone does marvelous things, sometimes we say, “He walks on water!” Well, it appears as though 2014 will “walk on water”–that’s how amazing a year it will be. Jesus will walk on the water of time through AD 2014.

So we pray. We stay close to the Lord through the Mass and all the sacraments. We pray that the human race won’t destroy the environment, that global warming will be prevented. But we also pray that it will get a little warmer during 2014 than it is right now.

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PS. Not to mention: Immigration-Reform information session at St. Joseph, Martinsville, this very evening at 6:00pm, with a screening of “The Dream is Now.”

St. Denis and Fr. Serdieu

1,755 years ago today, the missionary bishop of pagan Paris was beheaded on Montmartre during the persecution of Diocletian.

In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the king prays to St. Denis for help in speaking French. Considering Fr. Seridieu’s imminent arrival here,* we might want to do the same. St. Denis, ‘be our speed’ in giving Father a warm welcome and a good time with us.

Stunning statue of Saint Denis in Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

…We pray. We say our Our Fathers. We pray the Holy Mass. We believe that the omnipotent Lord hears our prayers through Christ our High Priest.

And He cares. God’s heart is moved by our prayers. We do not waste our time or energy by praying. To the contrary, prayer is the most prudent of all deeds.

But we learn from the wisdom of the saints what we can legitimately pray for. St. Denis and his companions “disdained prosperity in this world.” I can’t legitimately pray a novena to get a Lexus.

No. We pray for mercy. We pray for the Kingdom of God to come. We pray that God’s will be done. We want to be happy, yes. But we know that our true happiness lies beyond our present view; it lies in an unknown realm. Most of us don’t know what life is like in Haiti. Fr. Serdieu can teach us a little bit about it. But what we don’t know about life in Haiti is nothing compared to what we don’t know about life in heaven. Life in Haiti is very close to our experience, compared to life in heaven.

The saints have reached that realm of our true happiness. They know all about it. And so they pray for us.

Be our speed, St. Denis! Be our speed, holy saints of God! Pray that we might receive the divine grace to step forward today with patient love and kindness.

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* Pastor of our sister parish in Trianon, Haiti!

Sinners and Fruits

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?

“By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!

“Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them–do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?

“By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” (Luke 13:1-5)

We all have some idea of how much the people of Haiti have gone through since the terrible earthquake on January 12th.

Do we think, because the Haitians have suffered, that they are greater sinners than all the other people in the northern hemisphere?

By no means!

Natural Evil

Jeremy Hazell

The “Intelligent Design Debate” has been going on a long time:

If the movement of the universe were irrational, and the world rolled on in a random fashion, one would be justified in disbelieving what we say.

But if the world is founded on reason, wisdom, and science, and is filled with orderly beauty, then it must owe its origin and order to none other than the Word of God.

–St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, died A.D. 373.

…We are praying hard for everyone in Haiti. May all who are unaccounted-for be found safe.

Port-au-Prince Cathedral, January 14

We pray for the repose of Archbishop Serge Miot and all the dead.

Many souls certainly went to their deaths without proper preparation; may God be merciful.

We pledge ourselves to help everyone in need.

But before we panic and go reeling off into uncharted spiritual territory–losing perspective on ultimate reality because of the incessant buzzing of the television–let’s remind ourselves of the words of the expert demon to the junior tempter in Screwtape Letter #28:

I sometimes wonder if you young fiends are not kept out on temptation duty too long at a time–if you are not in some danger of becoming infected by the sentiments and values of the humans among whom you work.

They, or course, do tend to regard death as the prime evil, and survival as the greatest good. But that is because we have taught them to do so.

Do not let us be infected by our own propaganda…Whatever you do, keep your patient as safe as you possibly can…

Capuchin Crypt in Rome

The long, dull years of middle-aged prosperity are excellent campaigning weather for us.

…My dear mom regards my desire to live among skeletons as “extreme.”

If you want extreme, check out the crypt-level chapels of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rome.

…Big Hoya game against Seton Hall this evening.

Chvotkin has the call at 7:00 on AM 980. Jeremy Hazell is a dangerous sharp-shooter. Root hard!

Hibachi, Yes. Delpo, No. Plus, Tough Evangelization

Click here for some encouraging news about Gilbert Arenas.

40+ Wizards wins this season? Oh, yes…

…Delpo looked like he had Andy Murray in the bag this afternoon at the Rogers Masters finals in Montreal.

But Murray rallied to even things up with a second-set tiebreaker. Delpo fell apart, and Murray whupped him in the third set.

(Delpo beat Andy Roddick in the semifinals yesterday.)

Let’s face it: The U.S. Open is shaping up to be incredibly sweet. Too bad only one of these heroes can win.

I will be pulling for Roddick, by the way. Federer is my man, but Roddick won me over in the Wimbledon final.

Rogers Masters champ

…Click here* for one of the funniest accounts of attempted evangelization ever written, from H. L. Mencken’s Newspaper Days.

(*The link brings you to the middle of a chapter about Mencken’s trip to the Indies in the summer of 1900. The account of his encounter with the Methodist man of God starts in the middle of the page.)