Archbishop Fulton Sheen on "Kenosis"

I highly suggest carefully listening to all of them.  The end is amazing once you have heard the set-up.  You can Check out more at his website.


Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Favor for a friend.

A friend of mine wanted to see me write poetry, so I gave it a shot. I ask for a little leniency because I haven't written anything in a couple years.

The Anchorite

I stare at my hands, cracked and bleeding
Riddled with scars, they match my heart
Each puncture and tear a friend I've injured
Every time I withdraw a piece is left
Damaged love for that friend
My heart lays bleeding and dieing
Hidden in obscurity, safe from the world
Neglected hiding starves it of love
abandoned it turns black and anemic
No more suffering, no more bleeding
cold and numb it freezes
Yearning, I strive for a cure
Lies and pain misdirect from the truth
Brick-by-brick I build a wall
Trapped and guarded I build higher
No doors, no windows, no in or out
No ground given, no weakness shown
Held steady and immobile by my strength
I suffocate under my own will

They prostrated themselves and did him homage.

From todays Gospel reading in Matthew chapter 2:

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

When the magi saw the Christ child they prostrated themselves. According to the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, word prostrate derives from the Middle English word prostrat, which itself comes from the Latin word prostratus. Prostratus is a form of the word prosternere which is a compund of pro- (before) and sternere (to spread out or throw down). So literally the magi "threw themselves before" Christ.

Merriam Webster continues to define prostrate as "stretched out with face on the ground in adoration or submission". The magi were lain flat before our Lord. He was there and they were so overjoyed that even their bodies showed it.

I've heard many Catholics complain about how it is difficult to kneel. I once saw a group of young college sutdents including a high school girl kneel for over 2 hours on concrete, praying outside an abortion clinic in the freezing cold.

Many others claim that they have "bad knees" or a "bad back". Every Sunday I see the same little old lady come into mass. She is barely able to walk, with a cane in one hand and someone supporting her on the other side. She reaches the end of the pew, hands her cane to the person helping her walk, grasps the edge of the pew and genuflects. After arising she then shuffles carefully into the pew and kneels down ever so slowly to pray. She kneels and stands everytime it is required at mass.

How can people not follow the example of the magi? As Catholics we believe that the Eucharist is the true body and blood of Christ. When we are present with that why don't we kneel? Why don't we crawl to the very foot of Christ? Who is truly worthy to stand before God? Why not Give God your whole body, not just your heart?

Give up your pride and humble yourself before Christ.

On the desires of men's hearts

One of man's truest desires is that for beauty.  In his heart he knows somewhere that there is a beauty so perfect that it is designed only for him.  For me that truest beauty is found through truth.  The truth is perfection.  It is the only story that matches all the facts.  The desire for truth that I possess is not unique to myself.  Some seek musical beauty.  Some seek beauty in art.  Some seek beauty in cars.  Some seek beauty in craftsmanship. 

This desire for beauty is what drives the purest of intentions for men when they seek a woman.  They want to possess that beauty, but they don't want to destroy it.  This is the question of purity.  How do you obtain that pure treasure without our very presence tainting it?  There is a conflicting desire in men between possession and protection.

For a man to remain in purity, he should value protection above all else.  He should be strong and persevere.  If a man truly loves the object of his desire, he will seek to prevent any harm from befalling her.  True love is that which values protection above possession.

Beauty and love are very close to each other.  They share the same source and the same test of authenticity.  Since they are both from God, they will inevitably return to God.  If anyone wants to assess true beauty (or true love for that matter), figure out if it draws you closer to God.  Just as not every fact is truth, they may not all lead back to God.  Those falsities and atrocities and imitation loves are all evident in whether they force you to grow and open and include everyone or if they cause you to die and put up walls and isolate those that truly care about you.

Embrace beauty.  Develop love.  Seek truth.  Find God.

The stages of conversion

“The first phase is that of the young philosopher who feels that he

ought to be fair to the Church of Rome. ... The second stage is that in

which the convert begins to be conscious not only of the falsehood

but the truth and is enormously excited to find that there is far

more of it than he would ever have expected. ... And the third stage is

perhaps the truest and the most terrible. It is that in which the

man is trying not to be converted. ... The man has exactly the same
sense of having committed or compromised himself; of having been in a
sense entrapped, even

if he is glad to be entrapped. But for a considerable time he is not

so much glad as simply terrified.”

-Conversion and the Catholic Church by GK Chesterton

How apt are these words?  Who has not once started these steps and not seen them?

Why can't we all just get along?

This seems to be quite the recurrent theme in many churches today.  On the surface it sounds great.  Why can't it just be about Jesus?  Why can't we accept that the only real difference between the coffee-shop churches I attended in Southern California and the Tridentine High Mass is our form of worship?  While we are at it, what is the difference between holding mass and staying at home to read my bible and pray?

Granted that many within the Catholic church have different spiritualities.  They all share the same beliefs.  They also share something deeper.  They share in the one truth that has any chance of uniting Christianity again.  The only chance we stand to true unity of Christ's body is in the Eucharist. 

Every Mass the priest breaks the body of Christ for us.  It truly is his body broken for us.  Then when we walk up to receive him, we are experiencing Christ's body being united to Christ's body.  The Eucharist is the true body of Christ, not just a symbol (although there is symbolism incorporated), not just a "God is everywhere" general feeling, not even a warm and fuzzy prayer-like feeling.

About a week ago I was at mass kneeling in anticipation for Christ to come.  During the consecration my heart almost stopped.  What right does my heart have to claim to possess any love or any life of its own when I am in the physical presence of the source and creator of all love and all life?  My heart physically skipped a beat and then continued to beat in what can only be described as a whisper, almost like a freshman theology student might be before Pope Benedict to avoid drawing his attention and doing anything foolish.

I remember a longing that almost became painful while I went through RCIA.  I waited anxiously and intensely for when I could receive the Eucharist.  I knew that Christ was truly present.  This presence of Christ is one of the largest factors for me to join the Catholic church.  I had known God for many years, we had talked, I'd even heard his voice.  The miracle came when I realized his physical presence. 

I constantly use the comparison of a marital relationship or a boyfriend/girlfriend because it is easily understood and the bible does so also (the Song of Solomon).  How can a woman love her husband if he is not physically present?  Absences are OK, but if you are never physically present, then how do you develop a relationship at all?  It becomes a long-distance relationship.  It is almost like an internet dating service, where you are never allowed to meet.  Some may be able to subsist on a vague post-mortem type of promise to be present with Christ, but he promises to be with us now.  I need Christ now because I can't make it through without him.

The greatest way to evangelize to anyone is to get them to realize the miracle present in the Mass.  People can argue their own personal interpretations of scripture all day long.  It basically boils down to opinion and false rules imposed upon scripture.  Our truth is not present strictly in empirical evidence (although Catholic teaching will never contradict the bible and vice versa).  Our truth exists beyond the malleability of academia.  It exists in absolute reality and perfect recognition of Christ truly present as the head of the church.

The Feast of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio)

'I am in the habit of using repeated blows with a salutary chisel and
meticulous cleaning to prepare the stones that must form part of the
eternal edifice.' Every time he gifts me with new crosses, Jesus
repeats these words.

-Saint Pio of Pietrelcina



Who better to explain suffering than our dear father Pio? He bore in his hands the very marks of Christ's death on the cross. How often do we complain about something that Christ has tasked us with? How about someone he has placed us to help?

A mason will start with an unshaped rock and develop it into a building block. He starts by chipping off the outer most pieces. None can see inside, but the mason knows the rock well enough to As he works on the stone, the pieces coming off come from deeper and deeper in the core of the stone. Eventually the stone is so radically different, that stone no longer refers to its identity, but only its physical make-up. It becomes a block. This happens not by one swift stroke, but by many strokes. Each stroke painful yet perfecting. We become more perfect with each strike. We go from a jagged dirty rock to a perfect polished marble block. We attain the perfection that is obtained by the perfect mason.

Dear Lord,
Please help us to bear our crosses as Padre Pio did. Help us to love one another and to never be afraid to bear the crosses of another. As your Cross is the perfection of love, let us unite our crosses to yours in a perfection of our own love. Please strike us with your chisel to make us perfect blocks. Please let us be clean of sin and have an insatiable desire for your kingdom.

In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit,
Amen.